RICHMOND, VA., March 4, 1864.

Major General G. E. PICKETT,

Petersburg, Va.:

Orders have been given for your two regiments to be returned to you. You will therefore carry out orders lately given to you and send the brigade to Major-General Whiting.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

PETERSBURG, March 4, 1864.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General:

Your dispatch received. I have ordered Kemper's brigade to report to General Whiting.

G. E. PICKETT,

Major-General, Commanding.

DUBLIN, March 5, 1864.

General S. COOPER:

Am aware of enemy's crossing at Ely's Ford; troops are there to meet them.

R. E. LEE.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. OF WESTERN VIRGINIA, Numbers 13.
Dublin, March 5, 1864.

In obedience to the orders of the President the undersigned hereby relinquishes command of the Trans-Allegheny or Western Department of Virginia.

On parting with the troops he has so long commanded he desires to thank them for the courtesy that has marked their intercourse with him and his high appreciation of their gallantry and good conduct. If all has not been accomplished during his administration of this department that may have been desired or expected, no blame attaches to them. He has always found them prompt to obey his orders and ready to meet or seek the enemy. They have at least the satisfaction of knowing that whilst they have contributed largely to re-enforce and aid other armies of the Confederacy, many of them fighting at Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and Vicksburg, and were in no small degree instrumental in checking the advance of the enemy through East Tennessee into Virginia, no reverse of any consequence has been suffered in this department, which it was the special duty of the Army of Western Virginia to defend. The citizens