WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, September 3, 1862.

Major General JOHN A. DIX, Fort Monroe, Va.:

If last division of General Keyes's corps has not commenced to embark suspend the order till I can send new troops to replace them.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

FORT MONROE, VA.,

September 3, 1862-2 p. m.

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief:

Averell's brigade of cavalry was embarking when I received your dispatch of last evening. The embarkation will be completed to day and to-morrow. I will send you a detailed account of the entire force on the Peninsula and at Norfolk and Suffolk to-morrow. Your dispatch of this morning is received.

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, September 3, 1862.

Major-General DIX, Fort Monroe, Va.:

As the embarkation has commenced, my dispatch of this morning will be of no effect. I will send you fresh troops as soon as possible to replace those sent up here.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

HEADQUARTERS SEVENTH ARMY CORPS,
Fort Monroe, Va., September 4, 1862.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: Immediately after I was placed in command of the troops at this post and in the vicinity I called the attention of the Government to the destitute condition of the 20,000 people of Norfolk, arising from the interruption of their commercial intercourse while the rebels were in possession of the city, and the system of exclusion which was adopted after it was captured by us and which I found in force. I recommended a total change of regimen on grounds of humanity as well as policy. I through it due to ourselves as generous conquerors to put an end to the restrictions, which under the insurgents were a matter of constraint but which we contained as a matter of choice, and to afford a free ingress to the necessaries and comforts of life of which the inhabitants were in extreme need. My recommendations were adopted only to a limited extent. Eight vessels were permitted by the Secretary of the Treasury to proceed there with cargoes. Nearly three months have elapsed, and the people are even more destitute than they were when they came under our dominion. The suspension of business to a great extent necessarily compels hem to live on what they have saved instead of their daily earnings, which are for part cut off, and they are constantly becoming by the consumption of their savings less