The major-general commanding is encouraged to hope from a telegram received from Lieutenant-Colonel McCormick, dated yesterday, and saying that General Birney with 1,500 men had sailed for the coast of this State, that the pressure upon you will soon be over. Send the Parrott guns, captured by Captain Dickison, to the Savannah Arsenal to be mounted.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHAS. S. STRINGFELLOW,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

AUGUST 4, 1864.

His Honor CHARLES MACBETH,

Mayor of Charleston:

SIR: I received this morning your note of yesterday in reply to mine of the same date. My note was simply one of inquiry on a point very important not merely to the citizens of Charleston, but to the troops now in and near it for its defense and, incidentally, to the whole country. There is nothing in my note to warrant the inference you seem to have drawn that I intended to intimate any neglect of duty on your part in failing strictly to enforce the quarantine law, or that you had injudiciously selected the quarantine station. I am not very familiar with the quarantine laws of the State, or your duties in regard thereto, nor did I know what point you had selected as the quarantine station. I have since been informed that the station is in the Ashley River near the new bridge, and that the watchman or guard on board is not required to remain permanently on board, but is relieved and permitted to come to the city. I am further informed that there are cases of fever on board, but it is not yet known if they are of yellow fever. Under the circumstances, I do not think the station a judicious one for many reasons; it is too near the city; the prevailing winds are from that quarter, and its proximity to the city and the Savannah Railroad depot is a temptation to persons to smuggle goods ashore, and thus probably introduce yellow fever into the community. I think the mouth of the Wando a much more suitable quarantine station, and I have respectfully to ask that the steamer General Whiting be required to move to that point immediately, and that any other vessels arriving in the harbor be required to anchor at the same place. I would further suggest most respectfully that the guard on it be required to remain and not permitted to come to the city while the vessel is in quarantine.

May I ask an answer to this to-day.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

SAM. JONES,

Major-General.

AUGUST 6, 1864.

Colonel D. B. HARRIS,

Engineer Corps

(Care of General Beauregard, Petersburg, Va.):

COLONEL: Major-General Gilmer requests that you will communicate with him at once the reasons for mounting the Blakely gun on White Point instead of at any other point in Charleston Harbor,