west of Kanawha, for the purpose of urging the people to make head against the invaders and co-operate with me against them He will co-operate cheerfully with you in your plans already stated to me in your letters of the 17th and 20th. Colonel Jenkins is a man of high ability and decided military talent, who deserves fully your confidence as he enjoys mine. He is possessed of my views and plans and can explain them to you, and when he has you willsee how important your movement will be to my success against the enemy this side the Kanawha. If you can promptly occupy Fayette Curt-House or some good position on the Kanawha River I feel confident the enemy can be soon expelled from the valley of Kanawha and a feeling of security again given to our country.

Very truly, your friend,

JOHN B. FLOYD,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Army of the Kanawha.

[5.]

HEADQUARTERS COAST DEFENSES,
Wilmington, N. C., August 25, 1861.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant-General, Richmond:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Special Orders, Numbers 130, dated Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, August 21, 1861, and to report that in accordance with your telegram of the 19th instant I assumed command of the troops on the coast of north Carolina on the 20th instant.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. C. GATLIN,

Brigadier-General.

[4.]

RICHMOND, August 26, 1861.

A. T. BLEDSOE, Esq.,

War Department:

DEAR SIR: I write a few lines to say what I intended to say in person, but have been prevented from so doing by constant occupationand by the fear of trespassing on your time. On my way hither and since my arrival I have heard that reports very injurious to General Magruder were rifle in this community, and that he is currently represented as being very dissipated. At these statements do him great injury, not only with the public, but must impair his standing at the Department, I deem it but justice to contradict them, and now do, most positively and upon my own personal knowledge. General Magruder, since his appointemnt as a brigadier general, has not used intoxicating liquors of any sort, and has been as rigid a temperance man as Father Mathew himself. I address this note to you, not in you rofficial capacity, but because you have it in your power to remove any inuriout impression about the general, should any exist in high quarters. I hope that your duties in the War Office will not dry up your literary tastes. I was studying the Theodicy most carefully, with a view to swap a few ideas about it, when this necessary but infernal war took me from my books, my home, and everything that I love, to swelter in the pestilent marshes of the Peninsula.

Yours, very truly,

G. W. RANDOLPH.