sioned officers; 1,089 enlisted men; aggregate absent, 1.1179. aggregate strength, present and absent, of the Army of the Northwest 3,962.

Of the 2,784 present, 500 are at Huntersville, with two pieces of artillery; 350 at Crab Bottom, 40 at Franklin, 60 at Monterey, and the rest, 1,834, with ten pieces of artillery, are on the top of Alleghany, where the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike crosses to mountain.

The following are the regiments, battalions, and companies composing the command: Twelfth Georgia Volunteers, Thirty-first Virginia Volunteers, Fifty-second Virginia Volunteers, Twenty-fifth Virginia Volunteers, Fifty-eighth Virginia Volunteers, Hansbrough Battalion, Forty-fourth Virginia Volunteers, Rice's battery, four pieces; Miller's battery, four pieces; Raine's battery, four pieces; Churchville Cavalry, Rockbridge Cavalry, Charlotte Cavalry, Alexander's Tennessee cavalry, Pittsylvania Cavalry (re-enlisted, all on furlough).

As soon as the proper blanks are received i shall forward a full return.

I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant,

EDWARD WILLIS,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF LEWISBURG,
Lewisburg, March 18, 1862.

General [LEE]:

Your letter of 13th instant,* whit the Governor's proclamation in closed, was received yesterday. I reply by the first mail.

The force in this country consists of the Twenty-second and Forty-fifth Virginia Regiments and the Eighth Virginia Cavalry. I have three 6-pounder iron guns at this point, hardly serviceable. I have one 6-pounder iron gun at the mouth of the Blue Stone, represented to be in a bad condition.

The enemy will advance from Gauley Bridge by two routes; on James River and Kanawha turnpike, and on the road from Gauley via Fayetteville, Raleigh Court-House, and Princeton, to the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. These movements will be simultaneous. You will see by examining the map that when the enemy reaches Princeton, in Mercer County, he has the choice of two roads, one leading via Giles Court-House to Dublin, the other running directly south to Wytheville. Gaining either Dublin or Wytheville, he cuts the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad.

The Eighth Virginia Cavalry (500 strong) and the Forty-fifth Virginia Regiment Infantry (500 strong) occupy at present the line from the mouth of Blue Stone, near Pack's Ferry, to the pass on the Flat Top Mountain, where the Raleigh and Princeton road crosses that mountain. The Twenty-second Virginia Regiment (400 strong) is in advance of Lewisburg 7 miles, on Muddy Creek Mountain.

My actual force amounts to 1,400 men and four pieces of artillery. I cannot recruit these regiments from the adjoining counties; no new regiments are being raised in this country. The difficulty of passing through the enemy's lines precludes the possibility of recruiting from the valley of the Kanawha.

From information I deem reliable the enemy has been re-enforced at

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*See Series I, Vol. V, p. 1098.

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