HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA,
Fort Monroe, Va., November 24, 1862.

His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

President of the United States:

SIR: I have the honor to receive your letter of the 20th instant* in regard to the counties of Accomack and Northampton, or what is usually called the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and am gratified to learn from your that there is no objection to a recognition of their loyal condition. The reasons which make them so anxious on the subject are two:

1st. An unwillingness to be classed with the insurrectionary districts, considering it a stain upon their character and unjust to them, as they have given repeated evidences of their loyalty; and

2nd. A desire to be exempt, as they claim they are entitled to be, from the penalty of 50 per cent. in addition to the taxes to be raised to support the Government, &c. This penalty is imposed by the concluding clause of section 1 of the act of June 7, 1862, chapter 98, of the laws of 1862. This is a "practical difficulty" from which they ask to be relieved. They are perfectly willing to pay share of the taxes like other loyal districts.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.

FORT MONROE, VA., November 24, 1862.

Major-General HALLECK, General-in-Chief:

I have just received the following dispatch from General Naglee, at Yorktown:

My salt expedition to Matthews County has been a perfect success. Destroyed seventy-three large cast-iron boiling vessels of nine establishments and over one thousand bushels of salt. We are indebted to Captain Foxhall Parker, commanding the naval branch of expedition, for very effective service.

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.

FORT MONROE, November 24, 1826.

Major-General HALLECK, General-in-Chief:

I send you by this evening's boat, via Baltimore, Mr. Bernard, who is just from General G. W. Smith's office in Richmond. He has very valuable information. He is from Utica. He confirms, my statement of 21st of October as to the number of troops in the district including the Blackwater, Petersburg, Richmond, and south toward the Chickahominy, about 27,000, though the distribution is not the same.

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.

UNITED STATES STEAMER SHAWSHEEN,

Off Winfield, N. C., November 24, 1862.

Lieutenant C. W. FLUSSER, Commanding, Albemarle Sound:

SIR: As there are many reports in circulation which appear to be reliable, some of them at least, I deem it my duty to inform you of them. Part of Small's men are still on this side lurking about; Hill's com-

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* Not found.

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