HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN VIRGINIA,
Dublin, September 19, 1863.

Brigadier General G. C. WHARTON,

Glade Spring:

Keep me fully informed of affairs in your front. I hear Bristol is in the hands of the enemy. Do you know anything about this?

CHAS. S. STRINGFELLOW,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN VIRGINIA,
Dublin, September 19, 1863.

G. A. WINGFIELD,

Liberty:

Call on every man who will rally to the support of General Wharton to go with you at once to Glade Spring. Enemy 7 miles this side of Bristol this morning, and steadily advancing. Reply.

CHAS. S. STRINGFELLOW,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
September 20, 1863.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President Confederate States:

Mr. PRESIDENT: I have had the honor to receive your letter of yesterday, giving the statements of gentlemen from Norfolk with regard to negro troops and cavalry which the enemy are collecting in that quarter for an attack on Weldon. I do not apprehend that these negro regiments will prove a very formidable body, though unopposed they might do us great damage. But as the enemy are now in possession of the East Tennessee road, and the progress on the line from Danville to Greensborough has been so small in the past year, Weldon becomes to us a point of much importance, and I think it would be well to send Colonel Stevens, of the Engineers, to have some works erected for its defense, as well as for the defense of other vulnerable points on the railway. These could be so arranged as to be held by a small force until re-enforcements could be sent.

If the navigation of the Roanoke has not been yet obstructed, no doubt, and may be a good stream for the use of torpedoes.

It is of the greatest importance to us now that the line from Danville to the North Carolina Railway should be speedily finished.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. E. LEE,

General.

RICHMOND, September 20, 1863.

General SAMUEL JONES,

Watauga Bridge, via Bristol:

If you can with safety spare Corse's brigade, sent it here.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.