SMITHVILLE, December 25, 1864.

Major VAN DER HORST,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

Don't send the couriers and horse until I tell you further.

J. H. HILL,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

NEAR HAMILTON, December 25, 1864.

Major PARKER,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General:

Dispatch received. Will coma with all the haste I can with the two regiments and ammunition. I have also to find two regiments of home guards at Goldsborough, which I have ordered to Wilmington by telegraph message. Enemy reported near Jamesville in force.

C. LEVENTHORPE,

Brigadier-General.

SWANSBOROUGH, N. C., December 25, 1864 - 10 p. m.

Captain JOHN S. FAIRLY,

Aide-de-Camp, Wilmington:

CAPTAIN: I have late intelligence from New Berne and Beaufort. The enemy has re-enforced at New Berne and is going to make a raid, 20,000 strong. I never heard where they were going. There is also an expedition for this place. It was within eight miles of here to-night at 8 o'clock. I will let you know more about it soon.

I am, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

D. I. DICKINSON.

P. S. - The expedition for this place contains one gun-boat, one flat, and a lot of small boats. These coming up the sound.

D. I. DICKINSON.

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,

Richmond, Va., December 26, 1864.

General R. E. LEE,

Petersburg, Va.:

On the urgent request of Generals Custis Lee and Ewell I have ordered out one-half of the local troops that had been recalled by details. It is next to impossible to get the men out, and great inconvenience must result from it. Cannot these local troops be recalled and the short line held by them be manned by extension of the forces on each side? The public service suffers much from their absence.

J. A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
December 26, 1864.

Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR,

Richmond:

SIR: Your telegraph to-day has been received. I shall be very glad to relieve all the local troops now in the trenches in front of Richmond,