GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. OF WESTERN VIRGINIA,.

Numbers 20.
Wheeling, W. Va., December 20, 1861.

I. Both banks of the Gauley and Kanawha River and all that portion of this department lying south of them will, until further orders, constitute a district, to be called the District of the Kanawha, and will be commanded by Brigadier General J. D. Cox. *** The order creating the Kanawha Brigade is hereby revoked..

II. That portion of the department lying south of the railroad, west of Cheat Mountain, including it, and extending southward to the District of the Kanawha, will constitute a district, to be called the Cheat Mountain District, to be commanded by Brigadier-General Milroy. ***

III. The railroads in the department, with the posts on teem, will constitute the Railroad District, to be commanded by Brigadier-General Kelley..

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By command of Brigadier-General Rosecrans: .

GEO. L. HARTSUFF,.

Assistant Adjutant-General..

HEADQUARTERS ARTILLERY RESERVE,
December 22, 1861.

General S. WILLIAMS,.

Assistant Adjutant-General, Army of the Potomac:.

GENERAL: I have respectfully to call attention to the want of men in the batteries of the reserve. The number of companies present is seventeen; total strength required for seventeen batteries, 2,550. There are but thirteen batteries, two companies being united in four cases in the same battery. The number of men required for thirteen batteries is 1,950. The total number of enlisted men reported this morning as belonging to the companies, (including) 69 reported absent, is 1,435..

To complete fully the thirteen batteries would therefore require 500 men; to complete the seventeen batteries, 1,100 are required; from 400 to 1,000 men would probably answer..

I respectfully urge that some means be taken to furnish recruits to these batteries. They are commanded many of them by experienced officers, and are supplied with old non-commissioned officers, whose services it is important to make available to the fullest extent. If special recruiting rendezvous cannot be established, recruits may possibly be obtained from the regiment of volunteers by discharging from the service those who are willing to re-enlist from the batteries, with a promise that they shall be discharged at the end of the war if they desire it..

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,.

HENRY J. HUNT,.

Colonel, Commanding..

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,.

Wheeling, Va., December 24, 1861.

Honorable SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: For some time past I have felt the necessity of altering the Military Department of Western Virginia at the dividing line between Virginia and Kentucky. There ought to be a separate division, embrac- .