[First indorsement.]

FEBRUARY 16, 1864.

Respectfully submitted to the President.

J. A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War.

[Second indorsement.]

Read and returned to the Secretary of War.

The expression of General Jones are such as I anticipated from him, and he may be assured that I appreciate the embarrassments which have surrounded him and zeal and fidelity with which he has acted.

J. D.

ORANGE COURT-HOUSE, February 15, 1864.

General S. COOPER:

The following troops have re-enlisted for the war since announcement of 10th instant: Lane's brigade, Wright's brigade, perrin's brigade, Davis' brigade, Seventh Virginia Cavalry, Eleventh Virginia Cavalry, Thirteenth North Carolina Troops, Eleventh North Carolina Troops, Forty-eighth Virginia Infantry, Garnett's, Poague's, Haskell's, and Pegram's battalions of artillery. The following, having enlisted originally for the war, have reiterated their determination to continue in service: Cutt's battalion of artillery, McGowan's brigade, and Fourteenth Alabama Regiment.

R. E. LEE.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
February 15, 1864.

Honorable J. A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: I have caused lists to be prepared of the absentees from this army, with a view to adopt measures to bring back as many of the able-bodied as possible before the opening of the spring campaign. The reports from three divisions have been sent in-Early's division, 3,227; Rodes', 4,102; Johnson's, 4,054; and reported by medical officers as absent from artillery of Second Corps, 227; giving a total 11,610. Some of these are prisoners, some deserters, others a home permanently disabled, and others properly detailed. Many of them, however, are absent at the hospitals, either as patients or nurses, ward-masters, clerks, &c.,; many more detailed as disabled men in conscript camps and Government workshops. I propose to send a commission, consisting of Surg. R. J. Breckinrdige, medical inspectors, and Surg. S. W. Langton, Hill's corps, to the hospitals in Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, with the authority to send back to the army all of these patients or detailed men who are fit for field service, and to report on those detailed on Government works or in conscript camps, whether their places may not be supplied by men now disabled. In order to give due authority to the commission, I respectfully request that it be appointed by