destroy our enemies. In case of the fleet appearing off your coast telegraph and I will send down such reserves as I can spare.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. C. GATLIN,

Brigadier-General,

[9.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, No. 20.
Richmond, January 25, 1862.

* * * * * *

VI. The Thirty-ninth Regiment Virginia Volunteers will be disbanded and mustered out of the service. The men forming and regiment are authorized to re-enlist for the war and to organize themselves into companies, electing their own officers. When such companies into be formed by they will report for duty to Brigadier General Henry A. Wise, at Edenton, N. C.

* * * * * *

By command of the Secretary of War:

JNO. WITHERS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

[9.]

GOLDSBOROUGH, January 26, 1862.

General S. COOPER,

Richmond, Va.:

The steamer sent on the 21st instant to reconnoiter succeeded in getting to Portsmouth, N. C., before the storm, and remained there during its continuance. She returned to New Berne last night and reports that a pilot who had been pressed into service but escaped says that on the 21st instant (Tuesday) there were at Hatteras 175 vessels of all classes, about a third of which were in the sound and others being got over the 'swash." This information may be relied upon.

R. C. GATLIN,

Brigadier-General, commanding.

(Same to Governor Clark, Raleigh, and General Anderson, Wilmington.)

[9.]

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE PAMLICO, New Berne, January 27, 1862.

Brigadier General R. C. GATLIN,

Commanding Department of North Carolina, Goldsborough, N. C.:

GENERAL: Mr.---- arrived from Portsmouth this morning at 2 o'clock. He left there Sunday at 9 a. M. The pilots who had been seized were released last Tuesday on their declaring that they would suffer death rather than pilot them. Mr.---- saw one of them. He told him that one large ship was aground on the bar and two stranded inside before the last storm. It was said at Hatteras on Tuesday that a regiment was missing, and they feared it was lost. It was also reported that a vessel had been lost on Chicamacomico with 100 horses. The pilot say that some of the vessels draw more water than they can carry to Roanoke Island, but that they were seeking pilots for Croatan and no other place. On Saturday Mr.----, with two others, went to the top of the light-house and could are distinctly, the distance