hereafter required in said department; to use the same for transportation under such rules and regulations as you may prescribe; to appoint such assistant and employes as you may deem necessary, define their duties, and fix their compensation; to make requisitions upon any of the military authorities, with the approval of the commanding general, for such temporary or permanent details of men as may be required for the construction or protection of lines of communication; to use such Government steamers and transports as you may deem necessary; to pass free of charge in such steamers and transport and on other military roads all person whose services may be required in construction or transportation; to purchase all such machinery, rolling stock, and supplies as the proper use operation of the said railroads may require, and certify the same to the Quartermaster-General, who shall make payment therefor. You are also authorized to form a permanent corps of artificers, organized, officered, and equipped in such manner as you may prescribe; to supply said corps with rations, transportation, tools, and implements by requisition upon the proper departments; to employ civilians as foremen and assistants, under such rules and rates of compensation as you may deem expedient; to make such additions to ordinary rations when actually at work as you may deem necessary.

You are also authorized to take possession of and use all railroads, engines, cars, buildings, machinery, and appurtenances within the geographical limits of the Department of the Rappahannock, and all authority heretofore given to other parties may in any way conflict with the instructions herein contained are will be without force and effect in the said Department of the Rappahannock from and after this date.

By order of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States:

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

MCCLELLAN'S HEADQUARTERS,

May 28, 1862.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

Your dispatch to General McClellan, forwarding a copy of one from General King, this moment received. The force which he speaks of as having left to re-enforce Jackson was, from all we learn from prisoners, the same that General Porter whipped so severely yesterday.

R. B. MARCY,

Chief of Staff.

WASHINGTON, May 29, 1862 - 1 a. m.

Major-General MCDOWELL, Manassas:

Your telegram just received. I have no orders to give. You have all the facts before you that the Department is in possession of, and I have leave it to you to direct such military movements as the exigency, in your judgement, requires.

A telegram from General Banks states that he has information that