wait for him to attack your main column, but crush the enemy nearest to you and then go after the next. Take no tents in your movements, and march with the utmost rapidity. You have a most brilliant opportunity. Two regiments have been ordered from Ohio to Fremont; all the rest are at your disposal as they are organized. I need here for the defense of the capital every regiment that can be spared, and ought to take all that Ohio can furnish. It would be better to use in person the regiments you now have before asking for any more.

GEO. B. MCCLELLAN,

Major-General, U. S. Army, Commanding.

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

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

Commanding Department of the Ohio, Clarksburg, Va.:

The reason of my communication was that I have learned from the most reliable authority that Cheat Mountain Pass was not fortified as I directed, but only in a temporary way. This is confirmed by date of August 15. Carry out my previous instructions to the fullest extent. Leave at the Red House the minimum force necessary to hold the works near there. Occupy Kanawha Valley with the minimum force necessary to hold the Gauley Pass. Secure Grafton and the railroad line thence to Bentwood by the smallest possible force. Disregard, for the present, the interior of Western Virginia, or else hold it with your worst troops, who are not fit to take the field. Concentrate the remainder of your available force in the vicinity of Huttonsville, placing a strong reserve at that point, and occupying the works on the Cheat Mountain and the Huntersville road with a force sufficient to hold them until support can arrive. Strengthen both of these fortifications as rapidly as possible, and take there all your available artillery. Make a strong reconnaissance in the direction of the enemy's works towards Huntersville, and if possible drive them out before their works are completed and their force concentrated. Communicate this at once by telegraph to Reynolds.

GEO. B. MCCLELLAN,

Major-General, U. S. Army, Commanding.

GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DIVISION OF THE POTOMAC,

Numbers 4.
Washington, August 16, 1861.

All passes, safe-conducts, and permits, heretofore given, to enter or go beyond the lines of the U. S. Army on the Virginia side of the Potomac are to be deemed revoked, and all such papers will hereafter emanate only from the War Department, the headquarters of the U. S. Army, or of this division, or from the provost-marshal at Washington. Similar passes will be required to cross the river, by bridge or boat, into Virginia.

Strict military surveillance will be exercised within the lines of the Army on the northern side of the Potomac, and upon all the avenues of every kind, by land and water, leading to and from the city of Washington, as well over persons holding passes as all others. Passes will not be required at or within the lines of the Army north of the