CLARKSBURG, April 22, 1861.

His Excellency JOHN LETCHER,

Governor of Virginia:

DEAR SIR: Of course you are aware of the general exposure of this section of the State, and especially the danger of an attempt to pass northwestern troops throught upon railroads. We are almost entirely without arms. As lieutenant-colonel commanding the One hundred and thirty-eighth Regiment of Militia, I beseech you to furnish for my disposal such arms as you can afford, and that you will authorize the military of this section to do what circumstances shall require to prevent the passage of troops through Virginia or other aggression or insult to the Commonwealth. If the troubles in Maryland should continue and our services should not be needed at home, we would be glad to have liberty to go to the relief of our brethren of that State. I send duplicates of this by different rouses. Please direct the arms to Bridgeport, Harrison County, Va.

Yours, &c.,

N. J. COPLIN.

We indorse the above and unite in the request which it contains.

JOS. JOHNSTON.

RO. JOHNSTON.

JAS M. JACKSON.

W. P. COOPER.

A. J. SMITH.

J. S. HOFFMAN.

[2.]

PUTNAM COURT-HOUSE, VA., April 22, 1861.

His Excellency JOHN LETCHER,

Governor of Virginia:

DEAR SIR: A gentleman of this county of much credibility, who has just returned from a tript through several counties in Ohio, says he was informed by several of his custromers (he being a tobacconist) that efforts were now being made in several of the neighborhoods in Gallia and Jackson Counties, Ohio, to raise a sufficient force to invade this portion of Virginia, and produce an isurrection among the slaves and lay waste the valley of the Kanawha. Believing this statement to be true, I am inducent to write to you, and suggest the propriety of ordering one or more volunteer companies to Point Pleasant, the mouth of the Kanawha River. Buffalo is situated some twenty-two miles up the Kanawha River, but within some twelve miles of the Ohio River. As the Ohio River runs nearly prellel with the Kanawha from Point Plesasant to a poitn some eighteen or twenty miles below mouth of Kanawha, Buffalo would be the most accessible point to the abolitionists of Ohio to enter the valley of the Kanawha. There are more slaves in the neighborhood of Buffalo than there are from Buffalo to Point Pleasant. I would therefore also suggest the necessity of stationing some one or more companies of Buffalo. If we had arms we could soon raise a force to protect ourselves and give to other poritons of the State the service of our volunteers companies. The people of this county are heart and soul with you in the defence of the State.

Very truly, your obedient servant,

RO. T. HARVEY.