Delaware, and all of Maryland except the counties of Alleghany and Washington,which belong to the Department of the Shenandoah, and the counties of Frederick, Montgomery, and prince George's, which belong to the Department of Washington. If any changes have been mad in his command he has no information, official or unofficial, in respect to them. He received last evening a dispatch, signed Lawrence A. Williams, aide-de-camp, in the name of the commanding general of the division, and though it contained nothing more definite in regard to the authority from which it emanated, he assumed that tit came to him by direction of the Government, and immediately sent for the agent of the Sun newspaper, the proprietor being absent, and he thinks the result of the interview will be to cause a discontinuance of exceptionable articles like those which have recently appeared in that paper.

Major-General dix requests me to say to Major-General McClellan that his attention, since he assumed the command of this department, has been so engaged by official duties that the course of the secessionist papers in Baltimore was not noticed by him until the early part of this week. He has been considering whether the emergency would not warrant a suppression of the papers referred to, if, after warning them of the consequences of a persistence in their hostility to the Union, they should refuse to abstain from misrepresentations of the conduct and motives of the Government and the publication of intelligence calculated to aid and encourage the public enemy. It was his intention in matter of so much gravity-one affecting so deeply the established opinions of the country in regard to the freedom of the press-to ask the direction of the Government as soon as he should feel prepared to recommend a definite course of action. In the mean time it will give him pleasure to do all in his power to suppress the publication of information in regard to the movements, position, and number of our troops, as Major-General McClellan requests, as it is possible that orders may have been issued affecting his command and by accident not have reached him.

Major-General Dix will be glad to receive any information you may have in regard to the modification, if any has been made, of General Orders, Numbers 47.*

I am, very respectfully, yours,

WM. D. WHIPPLE,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DIVISION OF THE POTOMAC,
Washington, August 16, 1861.

Brigadier General W. S. ROSECRANS, U. S. A.,

Commanding Department of the Ohio, Clarksburg, Va.:

Telegram of the 16th received. Do not abandon the Gauley. Hold Bulltown, Huttonsville, and the works in front of it. One regiment, or at most two, should now suffice for Red House and Grafton. Clarksburg and the line of railroad may be temporarily weakened or abandoned. Attack the enemy on Cranberry or wherever he debouches, always having entrenchment sin your rear. You have the advantage of a central position within the mountains. Must use your entrenchments to check the enemy with small forces, while by rapid movement you attack his columns in succession with overwhelming forces. Never

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*Of July 25, 1861. See p. 763, Vol. II, of this series.

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