Upon consultation with Commodore Stringham, he informed me that the vessels necessary could not be immediately prepared. Upon further consultation it seemed desirable to him, as the batteries which it is proposed to attack are in position to command the inlet and if held by the United States would save the services of one or more blockading vessels at a very exposed and stormy point of the coast during the autumn, besides furnishing a deport at which the blockading steamer could go and get supplies, that the place, if taken, should be fortified and held by a sufficient number of troops to enable it to resist any probable attack. Upon an examination of the chart and survey of the coast, I concurred in that opinion in so far as to suggest it in this communication to the commanding general. From the peculiar position of the place it would seem to me that it might be held, if thought desirable, by a comparatively small number of troops. Its guns would commnad the only substantially practicable inlet to Pamlico Sound, the others being of easy interception. I venture these suggestions with the greatest deference. There may be other views which have not occurred to me which would render them valueless. I have the honor to report the trouble in the Ninth Regiment New York Volunteers completely ended, and the regiment, with the exception of a fe ringleaders, who are now under examination by court-martial, have returned to their duty with cheerful alacrity. The trouble at which I hinted in a former dispatch in the Second (Troy) Regiment Ney York Volunteers has broken out; although they enlisted they enlisted for two years-and I have seen their original enlistment and muster-rolls-they claim to be three-months' men only. When they first arrived here they were a very disorderly, undisciplined, and unequipped body of men, and I had more trouble with their plundering than I had with any other regiment; but by the exertions of their colonel and by a very large change of officers, they had come to be in a reasonably effective condition as regards discipline. They had been thoroughly equipped and privided for in arms and uniforms, when their minds became inflamed by some very mischievous articles in the Times newspaper, and on the 14th, three months from the day on which they were mustered, they stacked their arms and refused duty. I have taken and imprisoned upon the Rip-Raps 100 of the ringleaders, and last night only forty of the remainder obeyed the orders of their officers. I shall proceed with the most stringent measures to reduce them to obedience. They have no cause for complaint except that they have not been paid, and that paid, and that would have been done by me even if a paymaster had not come in accordance to my last dispatch had it not been for this outbreak; that was known to them, yet they have chosen to take this method of getting home.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJ. F. BUTLER,

Major-General, Commanding.

[4.]

GAULEY BRIDGE, August 16, 1861.

General ROSECRANS,

Clarksburg, Va.:

My advance guard was skirmishing with the enemy's advance guard yesterday afternoon, twenty-three miles east of here. Colonel Tyler, who is still at Meadow Creek, seems to think a larger force of the enemy have intercepted the line of communication north of Summersville. Among the secessionists threats are very rife that I am soon to