His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

President of the United States, Washington, D. C.:

The following is a copy of an original letter of Jefferson Davis in my possession.

DANL. BUTTERFIELD,

Major-General and Chief of Staff.

[Inclosure]

RICHMOND, VA.,

May 1, 1863-Sunday a.m.

Colonel

------

:

MY DEAR SIR: Inclosed I send you a telegram from Isaac, as requested by him. Our news from Mississippi is not definite beyond the fact that [John S.] Bowen, after engaging the enemy south of Port Gibson, had, under cover of night, fallen back across the Bayou Pierre, and that Loring was moving to his support from Vicksburg. The enemy landed in large force near Bruinsburg and have made cavalry raids as far as the New Orleans and Jackson Railroad. General Pemberton, as you are aware, is very deficient in cavalry, and is greatly outnumbered in infantry. We are looking, with intense anxiety to the operations of your army, and I have made earnest though not very successful efforts to give it prompt re-enforcements.

With best wishes, I am, as ever, your friend.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

HDQRS. CAVALRY CORPS, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
May 14, 1863.

Brigadier-General GREGG,

Commanding Third Cavalry Division:

GENERAL: The major-general commanding directs that you march three regiments of your command at daylight to-morrow morning to Bealeton for the purpose of guarding, the Orange and Alexandria Railroad from Rappahannock Station to Cedar Run. You will please send a return of these regiments to these headquarters this evening.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. J. ALEXANDER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. INSPECTOR OF ARTILLERY, U. S. ARMY,
Washington, May 14, 1863.

Colonel J. C. KELTON.

Assistant Adjutant-General, Headquarters of the Army:

COLONEL: I have the honor to report that in obedience to instructions from the General-in-Chief dated the 2nd instant, I left Washington, on that day and arrived at Pittsburgh the next morning. I found that the alarm, which had been great, had in a great measure subsided. The vague rumors of previous days were ascertained to be incorrect, and it was discovered that the rebels had not been in Pennsylvania at all, that they had come no farther north than Morgantown, Monongalia County, [West] Virginia, and that they had returned across the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and, when last heard from, were traveling south, in the direction of Weston, Lewis County, Virginia. I recon-