HEADQUARTERS VALLEY DISTRICT,
Ungers', Morgan County, January 11, 1862.

Honorable A. R. BOTELER, M. C.,

Richmond:

DEAR SIR: I inclose to you, by the direction of General Jackson, the accompanying letter from Colonel Monroe. It will furnish you with an indication of the effect produced upon this section of the country by the occupation of it by our ruthelss invaders. The timid are disheartened, and are but too ready to yield to the pressure. But indignation inflames the courage of others. Nothing should be spared to reassure the one and sustain the other. It is the practice of the enemy toi burn every hourse intow hch any of our troops have at any time been received. The object of this barbarity is to dismay our loyal citizens, and in this letter you have proof that the policy is not without its effect.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. T. L. PRESTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Inclosure.]

CAPON BRIDGE, VA., January 11, 1862.

Major-General JACKSON:

DEAR SIR: My men are erecting their huts as fast as possible, and will have them completed shortly. I will repeat that the enemy send out pickets of 200 and 300 on all the accessible roads to Romney, but in consequence of being engaged in bulding quarters I have not been able to attack them, but I hope you will hear a good report from us in a few days. It is with extreme regret that I have to inform you that I fear I cannot hold my men in camp much longer. I do not mean all by any means, but I fear that many will yield. It is true that it may well be said that one's country is above all price, and that the inducements of the enemy are but a weak effort indeed toward seducing men's patriotism, but to those who are looking every day to see their houses and their all wrapped in flames and their wives and children left to perish in the snow, they are more powerful than Xerxes' armies. As for myself I have neither wife nor children, all my stake is my country, and I shall certainly do everything in my power to promote its cause.

Yours, &c.,

A. MONROE,

Colonel 114th Regiment Virginia Militia.

[5.]

POPLAR NECK, NEAR EDENTON, N. C.,

January 12, 1862.

President DAVIS:

In view of the danger to our country, and the defenseless condition of that portion of it surrounding the waters of the Albemarle Sound, I have taken the liberty to write you, trusting that the emergency may justify my trespassing upon your time and attention. The sound is bordered by farms of great fertility, producing the cereals abudantly, as well as a large amount of cotton. The farms are generally large, and the white population, in consequence, but few in number. Edenton, the shire town, is at the head of the sound, and, together with the adjacent country, has sent to the war nearly the whole of the fighting population. Our crops of corn and wheat have been gathered and