to be detached, and those two batteries will be by them directed to report to the chief of artillery of the Third Corps, that they may, with Wyatt's battery, now with General Pettigrew's brigade, be formed into a battalion. Field officers will soon be assigned.

W. N. PENDLETON,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Artillery.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN VIRGINIA,
Dublin, June 2, 1863-1.25 p. m.

Major General SAMUEL JONES:

GENERAL: General Echols sends the following information from Lieutenant Colonel W. P. Thompson, commanding Nineteenth Virginia Cavalry, dated Headquarters Camp Northwest, May 30, 1863:

Scouts from this command just returned from Randolph report two infantry regiments at Beverly-Second Virginia [Union] and Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania-and three companies of cavalry 7 miles below. At Leadsville the Eighth Virginia [Union] Regiment is encamped, and at Beverly-16 miles below Beverly-is the Tenth Virginia [Union] Regiment; on either flank some detached companies. Scouts report that the enemy intend moving to Elk Water and Cheat Mountain, and on the night of the 29th (last night) move to this section of country. Their artillery has been ordered up from Clarksburg. There is a rumor that all the forces in Northwestern Virginia were ordered to support these movements. I am scouting many miles in my front, and will receive confirmation at least twelve hours in advance of their movements.

Echols does not think the enemy contemplate a move in this direction, but should be closely watched.

WM. B. MYERS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,

Richmond, June 3, 1863.

General R. E. LEE:

Information fully confirmed as to the evacuation of West Point and movement of column of 4,000 or 5,000 of the enemy, flanked by a circling cavalry detachment, probably as scouts, on the north and west side, to the Rappahannock, in Essex, near Tappahannock.

J. A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
June 3, 1863.

Honorable JAMES A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.:

SIR: I had the honor to receive last night your dispatch of the 2nd, containing General D. H. Hill's proposition to exchange a brigade for Colquitt's. The brigade proposed to be exchanged for Colquitt's was stated in the dispatch to be Ransom's, but I presume Ramseur's was intended, inasmuch as both Ransom's and Colquitt's are now with General Hill.

I was under the impression that one of the benefits anticipated in the original proposition to exchange the full brigades in North Carolina for the reduced brigades in this army was to have within the State