SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 73.
Richmond, March 31, 1862.

I. So much of paragraph XXXI, Special Orders, Numbers 72, Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, of March 29, 1862, as refers to Captain Winfield's company (the Sussex Cavalry) is hereby revoked, and the said company will immediately proceed to Norfolk, Va., and report for duty to Major-General Huger, commanding.

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By command of the Secretary of War:

John WITHERS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

[11.]

RICHMOND, VA., March 31, 1862.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General:

GENERAL: I respectfully ask leave to communicate through you to the Secretary of War the within reply to the letter of Major General B. Huger, dated the 16th of February last, asking to be allowed to consider my brigade as supernumerary and to relieve me from duty under his command. I request that it may be filed wherever General Huger's is placed or put on record. On or about the 19th of February I was ordered with the remnant of my command, excepting the companies of light artillery, to proceed as early as practicable to report to Major General J. E. Johnston, at Manassas. Afterward I had twenty days' leave of absence, from the Secretary of War, from the 28th of February, and arrived here on the night of the 18th instant, and the next day reported for duty to the Secretary, saying that I awaited further orders, the arrival of my command, and the call of a committee of the House of Representatives of the Confederate Congress. I was ordered to take my command to General Johnston, and on reaching here found it under several special orders, preventing the execution of the order to me. These special orders did not pass through me, and the order to me, so far as I know, is unrevoked. This morning I saw my infantry moving to the peninsula of York and James Rivers; under what orders I am not informed, except that Lieutenant-Colonel Richardson told me they emanated from your office. I respectfully protest that I ought to be notified of orders to my subordinates, and that I ought tob e furnished with the evidence to account for my not removing my command to that of General J. E. Johnston. At first Lieutenant-colonel Richardson reported that he could not get transportation for his infantry, and Colonel J. L. Davis reported that his cavalry was taken from his command temporarily, here and at Murfreesborough, N. C., and now both are removed to the Peninsula without any orders to me, except that still pending for me to report with my command to General J. E. Johnston. I beg to be informed how I am to be relieved from these embarrassments. Am I to execute the order to me? Is a court of inquiry to be ordered upon my conduct of the defenses at Roanoke Island? Am I to be allowed to remain here in obedience to the call of a committee of Congress in order to see justice done to myself in its inquiries? I am ready for orders and anxious to be in the field.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

HENRY A. WISE,

Brigadier-General.