CUMBERLAND, December 11, 1864.

Major-General CROOK,

Kernstown:

Mr. McAleer, a reliable citizen, reports that Rosser has four companies of cavalry stationed in the Lost River Valley below Brock's Gap, and that he sent four other companies into Hardy County on Thursday last. Rosser's headquarters are between Brock's Gap and Harrisonburg. His command are busily engaged shoeing their horses preparatory to another raid on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Each man is required to have an extra pair of horseshoes and nails. I think this will be the point he will attack, as all my information goes to prove he intended to come here as well as New Creek the other day.

B. F. KELLEY,

Brevet Major-General.

CAMP DETACHMENT FIRST WEST VIRGINIA INFANTRY,

Near Springfield, December 11, 1864.

Brevet Major-General KELLEY:

SIR: I have the honor to state that in obedience to your directions I surrounded Springfield at 6 o'clock this morning, and at daybreak searched the town, finding no rebels or anything contraband. I had the country scouted in the neighborhood, but found nothing. I could gain no information of any guerrillas being in the vicinity. There have been none in Springfield since the Green Spring Run affair. I will make a descent on Frankfort to-morrow and remain there two days if possible. Please give me information through the courier as to how I will get rations from Patterson's Creek. The men are suffering very much from cold and snow, the traveling is laborious, and I think the men will hardly be able to stand a long siege.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. E. IRWIN,

Captain, Comdg. Detachment First West Virginia Infantry.

BALTIMORE, MD., December 11, 1864-11.40 a. m.

Honorable E. M. STANTON:

On my return last evening I received the following telegram from General Lockwood, which explains itself:

SALISBURY, MD., December 10, 1864.

Major-General WALLACE:

Just arrived here from below. Find a telegram from Lieutenant Mullikin, saying that orders have gone to me at Cambridge countermanding my instructions so far as relates to the negroes. Presuming that this refers to the subject of the recent apprenticeship in these counties I beg leave to submit a few remarks It is impossible to convey to you by telegraph any idea of the hundred of abuses that have come to my knowledge of this system. I have acknowledge of cases where lads of sixteen and eighteen have been bound out and then hired to their fathers, who are prosperous farmers, for $10 and $12 a month. Both you and I are put in a false position here by stopping short now. I do not think that any once can visit these counties as I have done without seeing the importance of stopping this wholesale perversion of what is designed to be a humane law. I will leave for Cambridge to-morrow, and desire to hear from you by telegraph to-night.

LOCKWOOD,

General.

LEW. WALLACE,

Major-General of Volunteers.