HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN VIRGINIA,
Dublin, July 14, 1863.

Honorable JAMES A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War, Richmond:

Have you received my telegrams of the 11th and 12th instant? I have received no reply.

After sending my telegram of the 12th, I had an interview with Major Stringfellow, who had been detained by breaks in the railroad. He delivered your message, on which I thought it best to go to Winchester, and am now on my way there. As my horses cannot reach Staunton before Friday evening, I shall leave Thursday morning.

Please reply to this to-morrow (Wednesday), that I may receive it before leaving here.

SAM. JONES,

Major-General.

PETERSBURG, July 14, 1863.

Major-General RANSOM:

I send you a copy of the last dispatch from Fort Powhatan. Lieutenant Moore is a reliable man, though he may miscall the vessels.

M. W. RANSOM,

Brigadier-General.

[Inclosure.]

FORT POWHATAN, July 14, 1863.

General RANSOM:

SIR: The fort is about demolished. There are about 300 Yankees still on land. There are eight gunboats, two of them iron-clads, two tugs, two sloops, and one steamer opposite the fort; in all, thirteen. None have passed above. There are no infantry on board; all marines and sailors. We picked up a prisoner near the fort about half an hour ago. He says he is a deserter. He stated also that 50, 000 Yankees, under General Dix, are moving up the Peninsula from Yorktown. He further states that the fleet will move up the river as soon as the fort is destroyed.

P. A. MOORE,

Lieutenant.

HEADQUARTERS JENKINS' BRIGADE,
July 14, 1863.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General, C. S. Army:

GENERAL: The terrible destruction and loss of life in the division and corps with which the past of my brigade has been inseparably connected cause me to feel most sensibly my comparatively safe and idle situation. In the past campaign we fought side by side with the gallant men who sealed their devotion with their lives on the field of Gettysburg, and I now respectfully beg to be permitted, at the earliest moment allowed by the good of the service, to rejoin my division, and recruit its shattered ranks with my rested brigade. I do not want to be understood as dictating my position to the authorities, but only as representing the natural desire of a soldier to be at the post of honor and danger.