Captain McIntosh would make exactly the right proportion between officers from Virginia and from other States, and Colonel Walker concurred in highest commendations of him. The provisions of law seem to me to authorize all proposed. The batteries as proposed allow about two hundred and sixty guns with this army.

The law authorizes field officers in the proportion of a major for every sixteen guns, a lieutenant-colonel for every twenty-four, a colonel for every forty, and a brigadier for every eighty. Does not this permit us to have 6 colonels, 11 lieutenant-colonels, and 16 majors? The 6 colonels we have; of lieutenant-colonels we should only have 8, including Lieutenant-Colonel [L. M.] Coleman, Colonel Brown's battalion, so dangerously ill under his wound. Of majors we should have just 16.

If this be the intention of the law, the promotions recommended would no doubt give general satisfaction, and conduce to efficiency in this arm.

Adequate arrangements for forage seem just about to be made, so that we may hope to have the horses improving from this time. I am happy to report that the officers seem fully alive to this question.

I have the honor to be, general, respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. N. PENDLETON,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Artillery.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,

Numbers 21.
February 16, 1863.

I. The presence of citizens in the camps or within the lines of the army, unless authorized, is forbidden. Persons coming into the lines on special business must make it known to the provost-marshal. Citizens properly vouched for will be allowed to visit within the lines of the army with passports signed by division commanders. Loyal citizens who reside within the lines will obtain permanent passports from the division commanders near them.

II. Corps commanders will take steps to enroll all citizens within the army who are not exempt from military duty, and assign them to such regiments as they may select. They will cause the immediate arrest of all unauthorized persons wandering about the various camps and depots. It they can give a satisfactory account of themselves, these persons will be liberated and send out of the lines. The execution of this order is necessary to prevent spies and improper persons from remaining in the lines of the army.

By command of General R. E. Lee:

R. H. CHILTON,

Assistant Adjutant and Inspector General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, February 17, 1863.

General R. E. LEE,
Commanding, &c.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of the 14th instant. They give me interesting information, but correspond only partially with the accounts I receive here of the movements of the enemy.

An officer of the signal corps, much trusted as a scout, has just returned from within a few miles of Fort Monroe and Newport News. He