SATURDAY, April 20, and SUNDAY, April 21, 1861.*

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The Governor issued the following oreder to J. W. Garrett, the president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company:

In the event that you allow Federal troops to be passed over road, I will take possession of so much of said as lies within the limits of this State. It is due to the South that your road, located within slave territory, shall not be used to the prejudice of the slave-holding States, and especially the State of Virginia.

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By order of the Governor, General Philip St. George Cocke was assigned to the command of the military operations of the State bounding on the Potomac River. Officers of all grades on the line of the river were required to render obedience to his orders.

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[2.] JOHN LETCHER.

SUNDAY, April 21, 1861.#

Judge John J. Allen, Colonel Francis H. Smith, and Captain M. F. Mury having been notified by the Governor that they have been appointed the members of the council of three, in pursuance of a resolution of the convention of Virginia now in session, this day appeared and respectively accepted the appointents so conferred. Whereupon the council was organized by the eleciton of Judge Allen as president and the appointment of P. F. Howard as secretary, adn it was ordered that the resolution of the convention for the organization of the council be entered upon the journal; which resolution is in these words:

Resolved, That a concil of three be appointed by the convection, upon the nomination of the Governor, to aid, counsel, and advise him in the exercise of his executive authority in the present emergency; the said council to continue in office at the discretion of this body; Privided, That the fifteenth section of the sixth article of the constitution of this State shall not apply to the office hereby created.

Adopted April 20, 1861.

Resolved by the council, That the name by which this body is to be designated shall be the Council of Three, in acordance with the terms of the above resolution.

Ordered, That the Governor be informed of the reorganization of the council

The Governor having communicated with the council and asked their advice in reference to the appointment of a commander of the military and naval forces of the State, in pursuance of an ordinance of the convention adopted the 19th of April, 1861, the council do respectfully advise that the Governor tender to Colonel Robert E. Lee the office of commander of the military and naval forces of Virginia, with the rank and authority expressed in the ordinance of the convention, and that a special messenger be commissioned to communicate with Colonel Lee in the event of his appointment.

Ordered, That the Governor be advised to concentrate at Richmond as speedily as possible, 5,000 troops from the counties lying west of Richmond, between Richmond and the Blue Ridge, and in the valley from the county of Rockbridge to the Tennessee line, consisting of infantry, artillery, adn riflemen; and that the ordinance of the convention giving the requisite authority for this measure be recorded by the

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* From the Executive Journal of the State of Virginia.

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# From proceedings of the Advisory Council of the State of Virginia.