WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, May 8, 1863-4 p. m.

Major-General DIX, Fort Monroe, Va.:

Your movement is all right. Hold on to what you have got. I only wished delay for General Hooker.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

SUFFOLK, VA., May 8, 1863.

Major-General DIX:

I see by the papers that the Richmond press states that Longstreet's troops were not with Lee; only Longstreet in person. This I apprehend is the true version.

JOHN J. PECK,

Major-General.

WASHINGTON, D. C., May 8, 1863.

Major-General DIX,

(For General Foster, Fort Monroe, Va.):

General Foster at the present time should not be absent from his command. Moreover no interview can now give him re-enforcements by any possibility.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, May 8, 1863.

Major-General HOOKER, Falmouth, Va.:

General Dix had moved his troops before he received my order to suspend his operations, and probably occupied West Point in force yesterday.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

UNITED STATES FLAG-SHIP MINNESOTA,

Off Newport News, May 8, 1863.

Major General JOHN A. DIX, U. S. A.,

Commanding Seventh Army Corps, Fortress Monroe, Va.:

GENERAL: On the morning of the 4th instant I proposed to you a joint expedition against Fort Powhatan, Petersburg, and Richmond. This was in consequence of information that the enemy had left Suffolk; that General Hooker was between Richmond and the rebel army at Fredericksburg, and that you had 30,000 troops here. Your reply, dated May 5, received on the 6th instant, gives your reasons for not being able to co-operate in the proposed movement. In this reply you remark:

You will remember that I called your attention, in an interview with you several weeks ago, to the fact that the enemy were at work at Fort Powhatan, and expressed an earnest desire that some of your gunboats should drive him away before any guns were mounted. My last advices are that he is now occupying it with considerable force.