RECTORTOWN, June 4, 1862.

Major-General MCDOWELL:

Goose Creek bridges all right except one nearest Rectortown, which is critical. Shenandoah Bridge safe when I left at 3.30 p. m. I have placed two bridge-carpenters at each bridge to clear away drift. Will send down balance of knapsacks of Ord's division and balance of commissary stores from Piedmont. There are four trains of supplies at Rectortown bound up. Will leave as soon as bridge can be repaired, which will be to-morrow. Bridge over Bull Run was carried away to-day.

HAUPT,

Colonel and Aide-de-Camp.

WASHINGTON, June 4, 1862.

Colonel HAUPT:

I have this moment received the following orders:

Colonel D. C. MCCALLUM,

Military Director and Superintendent of Railroads:

The troops in the Shenandoah Valley are suffering for want of food. Provisions enough have been prepared for shipment, but the railroad management does not get them forward. It is therefore determined to give the chief quartermaster of depot a general authority to regulate the dispatch of stores by the Alexandria and Orange and Manassas Gap Railroad, and you are directed to report to him for orders, which you will carry out with the whole force at your disposal, if that be needed. Colonel Rucker, chief quartermaster, aide-de-camp, will give the necessary instructions.

Respectfully, by order of Secretary of War:

M. C. MEIGS,

Quartermaster-General.

FRONT ROYAL, June 4, 1862,

(Received June 5, 8.35 a. m.)

Honorable E. M. STANTON:

I beg that the Quartermaster-General's telegram, directing Colonel Haupt to report to Colonel Rucker, may be revoked. The failure to get forward supplies is not due to Colonel Haupt's management. He is, as you know, one of the best railroad managers in the United States, and I beg to assure you he is doing more than any other man can do. With the broken-down road, and weak, worn-out old locomotives, bridges going down with the freshet, and insufficient assistance, he has difficulty, enough without adding to them by placing him under an officer who has had no experience in the business of railroad management, of which Haupt is the head.

You have done me the great favor to place Colonel Haupt on my staff as the chief of the railroad department within the Department of the Rappahannock. I shall lose [him] to all intents and purposes if he is placed under an officer who is not under my command, and who knows comparatively nothing of the business he is to superintend.

IRVIN MCDOWELL.