of the river being occuped by scouting parties. your orders in regard to the two companies of the Seventeenth, the Indiana regiment at Parkersburg, and the Ohio Twenty-second, I have forwarded. The best information indicates that Governor Wise has about 2,500 men, a rather mixed force, at Charleston, having left Ripley suddenly on the rumor of the movement of my command some days ago. I bitterly regret I could not obtain the transportation a few days earlier. I shall hope to be able to push forward scouts from Ripley across country to communicate with Colonel Tyler at Bulltown and, should I do so, will be glad to have him authorized to co-operate with me toward Summersville, as I think there will be an opportunity for him to get in the rear of the rebels if they concentrate at Gauley Bridge with a view of holding that defile against me.

Hoping my plans may meet your approval, I remain, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. D. COX,

Brigadier-General, Commanding District of the Kanawha.

[2.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA, Numbers 105. Martinsburg, Va., July 14, 1861.

The Fourth [Second] Massachusetts Regiment, Colonel Gordon, is assigned to the Sixth Brigade. The commanding officer will report in person to Colonel Abercrombie.

By order of Major-General Patterson:

F. J. PORTER,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

[2.]

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE KANAWHA,
Red House, July 14, 1861.

Major General G. B. McCLELLAN,

Camp near Buckhannon, Va.:

GENERAL: We reached this place yesterday about 4 p. m., and I am waiting here to receive news of the advance of the Kentuckians along the route from Guyandotte and Ripley to concentrate on Charleston as I have ordered. My own advance has, I am sure, made theirs entirely safe, and I have great pleasure in assuring you that we have already greatly relieved all the country behind us from a reign of terror which was driving men from their pursuits and from the country. We have met no resistance worth metioning thus far. The enemy's forces have retreated as we have advanced, and we have exchanged a few shots with their scouts, nothing more. Your letter directed to Gallipolis giving me your first instructions did not reach me till yesterday, which was several days after I had ordered a regiment to Guyandotte. The reason for doing so was that armed parties were along the river between Guyandotte and Point Pleasant, and the very night of my arrival in Gallipolis they brought to a boat a few miles above Guyandotte and took from her a box of pistols and one of sabers belonging to private parties at Gallipolis. Knowing that we had considerable shipments of U. S. stores on the river, and that the river commerce should be secure, I was unwilling to leave that part of the country exposed, and thought it my duty to protect it, even at the expense of a temporary scattering of forces. I find that it has had no bad effect thus