[Inclosure.]

RALEIGH, February 10, 1863.

Honorable JAMES A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War:

Everything is in the utmost confusion on the North Carolina Railroad, and I can get no satisfactory answer from the Wilmington and Weldon road about transportation of corn. The State holds a controlling interest in both. Cannot some arrangement be made with the Governor by which a more efficient management can be had?

W. M. WADLEY,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NORTH CAROLINA,
Goldsborough, N. C., February 12, 1863.

Honorable JAMES A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 10th instant, inclosing a letter written to you by Major C. S. Carrington in relation to forage at Tarborough and the sources from which I am to draw supplies for my forces. I have had many years of experience in the quartermaster's department, and foreseeing last summer that the Army of the Potomac would have to depend on the supplies from North Carolina, gave implicit instructions to all my quartermasters accordingly. Before the crop was ripe enough to shell I ordered it to be brought in the shuck in box cars, and from that time to the present have sent it forward to petersburg and Richmond as fast as cars could be procured. The quartermasters at Weldon and Tarborough have been furnished by me with every means necessary to collect the forage, but the greatest difficulty I have had to encounter has been with the railroad companies. I have caused many letters to be written and have had interviews with the officers asking their aid to gear the forage out of the country, and have gone so far as to impress trains to send grain to your city. Several weeks wince I directed Captain Venable to force the cars, whenever they were about to return empty from Weldon to Petersburg, to proceed to Halifax for grain for the Army of the Potomac. In a letter addressed to W. T. Jones some time since I earnestly solicited his aid as president of the Petersburg and Weldon Railroad in this matter, and have urged this also on Colonel Fremont of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. Storehouses have been built and large wagon trains sent to Tarborough by my orders to secure grain; and I was not before aware that Major Carrington had much control over these supplies, which have claimed the particular attention of my chief quartermaster as well as myself. Without exception, I have always directed that supplies for all commands should be drawn from the surrounding country, except on the Blackwater and other extreme frontier lines, when they were required, as far as possible. to forage within the lines of the enemy. I am apprehensive that Major Carrington is not well informed respecting the resources of the State, or he would not have thought it possible for the troops south of Goldsborough to find supplies in that party of the country. I am getting all that can be found, especially from Sampson County; but there is only a little that can be purchased. In Onslow County some could be found, but it will all be required for the cavalry on duty there before the crop of oats mature. Before the receipt of your letter I ordered General J. J. Pettigrew with his brigade to march via Greenville to Washington County to drive the enemy out of the town of Plymouth and from the