resignation of the appointment of second lieutenant in the regulsar Army, which I sent to them before this new law, as their position will be more satisfactory to them under the regulation now made.

Your obedient servant,

J. P. BENJAMIN,

Secretary of War.

[4.]

DUBLIN, December 25, 1861.

Honorable J. P. BENJAMIN,

Secretary of War:

Transportation has been procured for one regiment, which is gone. The others will start as fast as transportation can be gotten. I will go the moment arrangements are completed, and these I am forwarding with all possible dispatch.

JOHN B. FLOYD,

Brigadier-General, C. S. Army.

[5.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 277.
Richmond, December 28, 1861.

* * * *

XI. Captain P. Woolfolk, Jr., with his company Virginia artillery, with its battery, will immediately proceed to Manassas, Va., and report for duty to General J. E. Johnston, commanding.

* * * *

XV. The Fourteenth Regiment Alabama Volunteers, under Colonel Judge, will proceed at once to Richmond, Va., and report for duty to General J. H. Winder, commanding.

* * * *

By command of the Secretary of War:

John WITHERS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

[5.]

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF LOWER RAPPAHANNOCK,
Tappahannock, December 28, 1861.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General, C. S. Army, Richmond, Va.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Special Orders, Numbers 200, from General Holmes' headquarters, predicated upon instructions from the War Department, relieving me from coimmand of the troops in the Northern Neck. The force thus left on this side of the river in the counties of Middlesex and Essex under my orders consists of eight companies of infantry and one of cavalry and a handful of militia, the whole not amounting to a regiment. Colonel Mallory, commanding the Fifty-fifth Virginia Volunteers, is a most efficient and energetic officer, and not being able to see the necessity of two colonels to a command less than a regiment, I respectfully ask to be relieved from duty at this point and be assigned to any post aht the Department may think me competent to fill.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

G. E. PICKETT,

Colonel, Provisional Army, C. S.