[CHAP. XLI.

commissioned officers be detailed on recruiting service, is approved and will be carried into effect.

By order of the Secretary of War:

JAS. A. HARDIE,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

WHEELING, W. VA., September 11, 1863-8 p. m.

(Received 10 p. m.)

Brigadier-General CULLUM,

Chief of Staff:

The following just received from General Scammon. I think the force of the enemy exaggerated. Nevertheless, if you have any force to spare me, I would like to send Scammon two regiments.

Brigadier-General KELLEY:

Enemy reported in large force at Princeton; Twenty-second, Thirty-sixth, Sixtieth [Virginia] Infantry; seven regiments under General Lee. Division, with Fifty-fifth, Fifty-first, and Third [Virginia] Regiments, at Union. Fifteen hundred cavalry at Lewisburg under Jenkins and Echols. Enemy's outposts 10 miles south of Weston. Scout there daily. Can you send me more troops at once?

SCAMMON,

Brigadier-General.

B. F. KELLEY,

Brigadier-General.

FORT MONROE, September 11, 1863.

(Received 4. 10 p. m.)

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief:

I arrived here from North Carolina last evening. While there, deserters from the enemy represented that the enemy apprehended an attack by us, re-enforced by 40,000 troops from New York, and that our object was feared to be the capture of Raleigh, to enable the peace party to revolutionize the State.

All the disposable troops were concentrated in haste at Kinston, and a large force of negroes set to work night and day on the defenses of Raleigh. The Union feeling is on the increase in the State, and peace meetings have been held in several counties. The force of the enemy in the States is small-not, I should judge by reports over 10,000 effective.

Now is a good time to make an attack upon the defenses at the mouth of Cape Fear River, if you have the force to give me for this purpose and desire it to be done at this time.

The news by the Spaulding has been anticipated. General Strong [?] gives some interesting facts. He saw the explosion in Fort Moultrie on Tuesday morning, and has no doubt of its being the explosion of the magazine. General Gillmore had said than in one or two days from that time (Monday) he would plant our flag upon fort Sumter; that he would probably have a fight to do it, as the enemy had 100 or 200 men there yet. General Gillmore expected to be here within one week, en route to Washington, regarding his work as mainly completed by the destruction of Fort Sumter and the capture of Morris Island.

J. G. FOSTER,

Major-General.