HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NORTH CAROLINA,
Goldsborough, November 28, 1861.

Major General J. G. MARTIN,

Adjutant-General of North Carolina, Raleigh:

GENERAL: In reply to your letter of the 27th instant I have to state that I design to send the companies of the Seventh Volunteers now in Hyde County to Roanoke Island as soon as they can be relieved. I had intended to have ordered Colonel Jordan's regiment to that county as soon as it was reported to have been completely organized, but an order this day received from the Adjutant-General makes it necessary that Colonel Wright's regiment should at once be relieved by a North Carolina regiment at Roanoke Island, and having no other that could be so conveniently spared for that service I shall send Jordan's. Please let me know by telegraph if the regiment is now complete. I have no use for an unarmed regiment.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. C. GATLIN,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

[4.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 246.
Richmond, November 29, 1861.

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XIX. The following companies will be organized into a battalion, the designation of which shall be the First Battalion of North Carolina Volunteers, Lieutenant Colonel William T. Williams commanding: Captain E. C. Brabble's company, Captain J. G. Hughes' company, Captain John Ray's company, Captain J. M. Wood, Jr.'s, company, Captain E. A. Martin's company, Captain M. M. Wilson's company.

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By command of the Secretary of War:

John WITHERS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

[4.]

WASHINGTON, N. C., November 29, 1861.

Honorable J. P. BENJAMIN,

Secretary of War:

SIR: The undersigned, members of the committee of safety of this town, after mature deliberation, believe the service in this section would be greatly promoted by a division of the military district known as the Pamlico. We earnestly request you, and through you the President, to divide the same. This district embraces an extent of country so diversified and covering large water-courses that it is next to an impossibility for any one man to attend to it. Thisour late excellent commander, General Hill, felt, and so expressed himself. In the event of an invasion, which is constantly threatened fromHatteras, the services of the general might, and doubtless would, be needed at many points where, from the peculiar geography of the district, they could not be rendered. From our familiarity with the country and modes of access from one part to another of this district, we would with due defenrence suggest that the dividing line be run from the Atlantic Ocean across the middle of Ocracoke Island; thence through Pamlico Sound to the dividing line between Craven and Beaufort Counties; thence with said