Regiment. His letter was dated yesterday. If it be possible to expedite the arming of those troops it should be done with all dispatch, as there in every indication that their services will be needed at once. I forwarded yesterday to His Excellency a telegram from the signal officer at Norfolk to the effect that the enemy were taking on board a large body of troops at Fortress Monroe bound seaward. If destined for our coast they will be off Macon or Wilmington to-day.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. C. GATLIN,

Brigadier-General.

[4.]

GOLDSBOROUGH, October 24, 1861.

Governor CLARK, Raleigh, N. C.:

Just received the following telegram from the Secretary of War:

We have reason to suspect that the expedition now about to sail from Fortress Monroe is intended to land a force about 1,500 men on your coast a few miles below Fort Macon, with the view of marching on New Berne. Keep a good lookout. Concentrate your forces so as to repel such an attack.

If it is possible to forward armed troops to New Berne, please do so; also cause the arms of the Twenty-eighth Regiment to be forwarded to them at once.

R. C. GATLIN,

Brigadier-General.

[4.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 188.
Richmond, october 24, 1861.

* * * * *

VI. Colonel Wofford's Eighteenth Regiment Georgia Volunteers, and Lieutenant-Colonel Stovall's battalion Georgia Volunteers, with its light battery, will immediately proceed, under command of Colonel G. W. C. Lee, to Goldsborough, N. C., and report for duty to Brigadier-General Gatlin.

By command of the Secretary of War:

John WITHERS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

[4.]

NORFOLK, October 24, 1861.

J. P. BENJAMIN:

Signals from below inform us that the enemy embarked troops at Old Point late yesterday evening and headed seaward. The main part of the expedition are still at anchor off the fortress, viz, twenty-nine steamer and gunb-boats and forty-one transports.

JAMES F. MILLIGAN,

Captain, Signal Officer.

[4.]

RICHMODN, October 25, 1861.

General T. H. HOLMES,

Brooke's Station, Va.:

If General J. E. Johnston wants your assistance he will notify ou, as his command extends on the line of the Potomac from the Alleghany, Mountains to the Chesapeake.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector-General.

[5.]