CIRCULAR.] HEADQUARTERS CENTER GRAND DIVISION,

Camp near Falmouth, Va., January 17, 1863.

The order for the movement of the center grand division at 12 p.m., January 18, is suspended for twenty-four hours.

By command of Major General Joseph Hooker:

JOS. DICKINSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, January 17, 1863.

General SLOCUM:

You will not commence your movement until Monday morning.

A. E. BURNSIDE,
Major-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, January 17, 1863.

Major-General WRIGHT, Cincinnati, Ohio:

The troops under General Kelley, in Western Virginia, have, by direction of the Secretary of War, been placed under the orders of Major-General Schenck, commanding the Middle Department.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WESTERN VIRGINIA, Marietta, Ohio, January 18, 1863.

Major N. H. McLEAN,
Chief of Staff, Cincinnati:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of telegram of yesterday, stating that "the troops under General Kelley, in Western Virginia, have, by direction of the Secretary of War, been placed under the orders of Major-General Schenck, commanding Middle Department."

I beg leave to suggest to the commanding general that the difficulty in knowing what belongs to this district is not removed, by reason of the following circumstances:

On 14th November, General Kelley, being in command of a division, reporting to these headquarters, felt his position at Cumberland and New Creek to be unsafe, by reason of a threatened attack of the enemy in considerable force. I ordered General Milroy, then commanding Cheat Mountain Division, to have two regiments in the Cheat Mountain country, at Beverly, Buckhannon, and Bulltown, and march with the remainder of his division to support General Kelley. This he did and, as General Kelley was senior officer, the command, in their joint operations, devolved upon him. Besides the two regiments left west of the mountains by General Milroy, General Kelley left two of his own division, the Sixth [West] Virginia and Eleventh [West] Virginia, these being scattered along the railroad from Parkersburg to Grafton.

General Milroy continued to report to these headquarters till I first was notified by General Kelley of his being ordered with the troops under his command to report to General Schenck, when I notified him to report to General Kelley till the definite settlement of the meaning of the order from the War Department, except that the regiments west of the mountains were ordered by me to continue to report here.