RICHMOND, VA., December 7, 1 861.

Brigadier General SAMUEL. G. FRENCH, Evansport, Va.:

GENERAL: Please inform me at your earliest convenience as to the practicability and expediency of protecting the guns and cannoneers of your batteries from the vertical fire of the enemy by coverings of timber and earth; a lso as to what has been done to the roads in your command to prepare them for the transportation of heavy artillery and for other military operations, and to what extent they can be improved in this respect.

JEFF'N DAVIS.

[5.]

LEEWISBURG, GREENBRIER COUNTY, VA.,

December 7, 1861.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President of the Confederate States:

Your petitioners, citizens of Greenbrier County, Va., would respectfully represent that they are advised that all the forces lately composing the Southern Army of Western and Northwestern Virginia are soon to be withdrawn from their present positions, now in defense of this portion of the State, to other fields of action, and that no provision will be made at present for the protection of this section of the Confederacy. Should this be the case a large and vast amount of property will be left free to the incursions of the enemy, and the personal safety of many good subjects willb e jeopardized by the presence of an invading army. By reason of the close proximity of the inhavbitants of the counties of Greenbrier, Monroe, Pocahontas, and other counties in this section to the enemy's lines, and the absence of any force to repel them, they will be constnatly exposed to invasion and to the rapacity of the Northern forces. In view of the fact that this section of the State has furnished many companies of volunteers for the service, and the additional fact of the loyalty of its people, protected only by a disorganized and poorly disciplined milita, and in view of the premises generally, your petitioners are of the opinion that this section of the State should be protected, and they hope and believe that Your Excellency will make such provisions for the safety of Western Virginia as may be necessary to protect it from further invasEYNODS.

D. H. STALNAKER.

FLOYD ESTILL.

[AND 76 OTHERS.]

[5.]

RICHMOND, December 9, 1861.

Colonel GEORGE DEAS, Dublin Station, Va.:

Hasten forward D. S. Donelson's Tennessee brigade and W. E. Starke's regiment to Charleston, S. C., as already ordered. Answer by telegram.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector-General.

[5.]

HEADQUARTERS NORTHWESTERN ARMY,
Staunton, Va., December 9, 1861.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant-General, &c.:

GENERAL: I am moving the sick, supplies, &c., as rapidly as possible to the rear, and will in a few days commence the movement of troops