wish you would keep your Yankees to yourself; or if you find them pushing up here from New Berne you must send me some more troops. I hope that you will send me Garnett and Reilly as soon as it can be done; and if you find other troops coming from New Berne you had better try and make some arrangement by which you can re-enforce me further.

I remain, most respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES LONGSTREET,

Lieutenant-General, Commanding.

I am greatly in need of cavalry. Have but seven companies of Colonel Baker's regiment. What can it be doing? General Whiting complains that he can get none and you say that it is worthless. I have been trying to get some ever since I have been in the department and think that I could make it very useful if I cold eve get hold of it.

APRIL 15 (OR 18), 1863-8.30 a. m.

Major General D. H. HILL:

GENERAL: I received your note last night inclosing one from Brown and one from Whitford. If the dispatch mentioned by Brown was really sent to the commander of the expedition it was very kind of him to communicate it; but what becomes of General Longstreet's effort to keep the enemy in Suffolk if they thus march across his face? My opinion is what it was last night-concentrate. If you are going to fight in the rear of the road leading from Blount's farm to the Swift Creek road I am opposed to exposing any one at the Blount's Creek, for I should consider them sacrificed unless I stationed a regiment at the farm, and that would increase the dispersion of our forces, which already exceeds reasonable limits. I send you Captain McCrady's dispatch, by which it appears that the same steamer ran down by both batteries this morning. So passes away the blockade. As somebody remarked this morning,with more truth than agreeability, "The entertainment will now conclude with the laughable and amusing farce of 'Running the Blockade.' Parents may send their children with the assurance that the expedition is perfectly innocent." It is a mystery to me that the one battery should not have seen her and the other should not have sunk her.

Very respectfully,

J. J. PETTIGREW,

Brigadier-General.

HEADQUARTERS,
Near Suffolk, Va., April 15, 1863.

Major General D. H. HILL,

Commanding Dept. of North Carolina, near Washington, N. C.:

GENERAL: Your letter of the 10th to the commanding general is received. I am directed to write as follows:

We cannot afford to keep the large force that you have watching the garrison at Washington. It would seem that you could, by fortifying the positions that you hold around Washington, keep the garrison securely inside with 3,000 men. If you should order the two regiments that were at Hamilton in the place of Garnett's brigade, and let them fortify, they could the garrison in on the north side. Pettigrew's