I herewith have the honor to transmit the report* of General Jones of his expedition to Moorefield,&c.

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

R. E. LEE,

General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,

No. 14.
January 14, 1863.

I. Major General D. H. Hill, Provisional Army, Confederate States, will immediately proceed to Richmond, Va., and report to the Adjutant and Inspector General, C. S. Army.

* * * * * *

By order of General Lee:

[W. H. TAYLOR,]

Assistant Adjutant-General.

RICHMOND, January 15, 1863.

General R. E. LEE, Fredericksburg, Va.;

Would it be possible to spare one of the Louisiana brigades (Nicholl's or Hays') to send to Louisiana to recruit or could the officers and non-commissioned officers of one of the brigades be sent to recruit on transferring the men to the other brigades, and can such transfer be effected?

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN VIRGINIA, Dublin Depot, January 16, 1863.

Officer Commanding U. S. Forces in the Valley of the Kanawha:

SIR: It has been represented to me that on the night of the 9th instant a body of cavalry, constituting a part of your command, came within a mile or less of the town of Lewisburg, [W.] Va. They entered the house of Mr. Austin Handley, which was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Handley and their three or four small children. The first warning the enemy gave of their wicked and barbarous purpose was the application of the torch to the bed-clothes and other combustible articles in the different rooms of the house. Mr. and Mrs. Handley and their young children were turned out of doors at a late hour of the night, barafooted and in their night-clothes. The weather was cold, and the ground covered with snow. The dwelling-house, with all the furniture, private papers and money, the stables and horses, the barns and forage, were all destroyed in the conflagration. They also set fire to the residence of Mr. Feamster, and burned his stables, six horses, and a quantity of forage. They wee driven off by my troops stationed at Lewisburg, and thus prevented from committing other depredations, which they had declared their purpose of doing.

When the enemy was asked by Mr. Handley for an explanation of their conduct, their only reply was that "they were ordered to do it." These facts are communicated to me by undoubted authority. I cannot believe that you have ordered any one under your command to commit

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*See January 2-5, 1863, Expedition to Moorefield and Petersburg, W. Va.,747.

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