WASHINGTON, April 13, 1863.

Brigadier-General NAGLEE:

Have no instructions. No re-enforcements can be sent from Department of the South.

G. W. CULLUM,

Chief of Staff.

SUFFOLK, VA., April 14, 1862-2.30 p. m.

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief:

I arrived here this morning. The post is closely invested with over 30,000 men. The report of the 1st instant, in the Adjutant-General's Office, will show our force. Two gunboats in the Nansemond are disabled; one is sunk. Our danger is that the enemy will cross the river and cut us off from the Norfolk. I consider it necessary that an army corps, or at least two divisions, should be sent to Norfolk at once, so as to protect the Nansemond. The great superiority of the enemy makes it impossible to dive the force here with safety, and we cannot retreat on Norfolk without great sacrifice of property and life. This place must be held if possible.

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C., April 14, 1863-7.15 p.m.

Major-General HEINTZELMAN,

Washington:

GENERAL: You will immediately dispatch to Norfolk, reporting at Fort Monroe, 6,000 men or thereabouts. You will make requisitions on the Quartermaster's Department for transports. If necessary they will be recalled from Aquia Creek. This dispatch of troops must be made in preference to anything else and must be pushed with all possible haste, without regard to hours or to darkness.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF WASHINGTON, Numbers 57.
April 14, 1863.

VII. The following troops will embark at daylight to-morrow morning for Norfolk, reporting at Fort Monroe:

The Second Brigade, General Abercrombie's division, with the exception of the Sixteenth Virginia Volunteers; the Third Brigade, General Abercrombie's division; the One hundred and seventeenth New York Volunteers, of Colonel Haskin's division; the Eleventh Rhode Island Volunteers, from the Convalescent Camp; the One hundred and sixty-ninth New York Volunteers, form General Martindale's command.

* * * *

By command of Major-General Heintzelman:

C. H. POTTER,
Assistant Adjutant-General.