Tompkins will not remain longer than until I am ready for a forward movement, which I hope to be very shortly.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN B. FLOYD,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Army of the Kanawha.

Numbers 32.] CAMP NEAR HAWK'S NEST, VA., September 6, 1861.

Brigadier General JOHN B. FLOYD, Commanding, &c.:

SIR: I am obliged for the re-enforcements you have sent to me, and especially by the return of the section of my artillery, which is much needed in the position I occupy on this road. Colonel Tompkins' regiment will not be removed at all from this road. Whenever the two pieces of my artillery can be spared from this camp I will order them, under a detachment of my own command, as you direct. The militia of General Chapman are not trained and may lose the pieces. If a piece is required anywhere, it is needed at Cotton Hill.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

HENRY A. WISE,

Brigadier-General.

Numbers 33.] CAMP NEAR HAWK'S NEST, VA., September 6, 1861.

Brigadier General JOHN B. FLOYD, Commanding, &c.:

SIR: I now send orders to Captain G. Hart, in command of the men and pieces of artillery you have ordered to be returned to my Legion. I have ordered the pieces belonging to volunteers of the States attached to your command, left at the White Sulphur, to be sent on, and they shall be sent over to you as soon as they arrive. The two you had and these two, with your own battery, will leave no necessity, I hop, for my guns, and if I am to send two of my pieces to co-operate with General Chapman, the Legion will be without guns enough.

Very respectfully,

HENRY A. WISE,

Brigadier-General.

RICHMOND, September 7, 1861.

Lieutenant Colonel J. GORGAS, Chief of Ordnance:

SIR: It has come to my knowledge through an official source that the million of cartridges which reached Camp Pickens, at Manassas, a few days since, are lying in piles on the ground, exposed to the rain, and must be damaged. The Quartermaster's Department is responsible for transportation and storage, but I call your attention to the fact stated, and suggest, if it be not your custom, that the ordnance officer at Manassas be notified in advance, so long as there is insufficient storage, of intended transmission of ammunition for the Army, so that similar casualties and unmerited censure may be avoided as far as possible.*

Respectfully,

L. P. WALKER,

Secretary of War.

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*Answer, if any, not found.

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