not be required to stop for inspection, as they are understood to have a responsible army police on board and will not be allowed by you to violate the blockade.

I will thank you to inform me what steps you have taken or may take to insure this result.

I have the honor to be, general, respectfully, yours,

S. P. LEE,

Actg. Rear-Admiral, Commanding N. Atlantic Blockading Squadron.

[Inclosure.]

Instructions for officers on guard duty.

No vessel must be allowed to pass inward except the mail steamer and transports with troops without stopping at the guard vessel and delivering a certificate signed by Captain W. E. Blake, provost-marshal, at Fort Monroe, that the vessel is in the employ of the War Department and has supplies for the army only on board. Vessels without such certificates must be taken charge of and the circumstances immediately reported to the admiral or senior officer present.

Outward-bound vessels, other than those before excepted (mail steamers, &c.), must stop at the guard vessel and leave a certificate signed by-, stating the vessel to be empty (in ballast) or has supplies for the army only on board.

Vessels attempting to pass without such certificate must be taken charge of and reported as before directed.

A boarding-book must be kept, and the names of all vessels passing the guard vessels in or out be entered therein, with the date, by whom owned, name of master, tonnage, and cargo. A weekly return, showing the foregoing, must be made to the admiral or senior officer present.

S. P. LEE,

Act. Rear-Admiral, Commanding N. Atlantic Blockading Squadron.

FORT MONROE, VA., September 23, 1862.

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief:

The enemy have completed their bridge at Carrsville, on the Norfolk and Seaboard Railroad, and have crossed a part of their force. They must have on the Blackwater 12,000 men, and for two or three days they have been concentrating them at Carrsville, one day's march from us. A column has left Richmond in the direction of Williamsburg, but I can get no definite information as to its numbers. The news Merrimac is expected down the river in ten days. There is nothing to cope with her but the Monitor. The Galena is no better than a wooden gunboat. If anything befalls the Monitor everything about us may be smashed up, our 12,000 men at Norfolk and Suffolk cut off from us, and our communication with Washington and Baltimore closed. The ironsides was here but has been withdrawn. There certainly ought to be another efficient armor-clad steamer sent here promptly.

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.