WAR DEPARTMENT,

June 8, 1864-2 p.m.

Major-General SHERMAN, Acworth, Ga.:

On Sunday General Hunter fought a battle with the rebels at Mount Crawford, sixteen miles from Staunton, and gained a complete victory. The rebel General W. E. Jones was killed on the field. Our forces occupy Staunton. The rebels are in the mountains between Staunton and Charlottesville. Dispatches from General Grant to this morning report no movements or change of position on either side. General Crittenden has at his own request been relieved from the Army of the Potomac. Do you want him? Mr. Lincoln was renominated by acclamation in the Baltimore Convention to-day.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

ACWORTH, GA., June 8, 1864-8 p.m.

(Received 10 a.m. 9th.)

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War:

Am rejoined at General Hunter's success on that line. Staunton, Charlottesville, and Lynchburg are points of as much military importance as any in Virginia. I cannot give an active command to General Crittenden without displacing worthy incumbents, who started on the campaign, and are fairly entitled to see it out. I already have General Schurz and Milory on nominal duty, yet I wish Crittenden all honor and success, and will bear his case in mind should the accidents of war create a vacancy. General Hovey, of Indiana, is very discontented that he has not been made a major-general. He has tendered his resignation, and though I esteem him as a man, I shall recommend the acceptance of his resignation. All well here.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

ACWORTH, GA., June 8, 1864-1.30 p.m.

(Received 10.45 p.m.)

Major-General HALLECK, Washington, D. C.:

General Blair arrived to-day, with two divisions of the Seventeenth Corps, about 9,000 strong, having left about 1,500 men in the Allatoona Pass, to fortify and hold it. Colonel Wright, railroad superintendent, reports he will have the Etowah bridge done by the 12th instant. To-morrow I will feel forward with cavalry, and follow up with infantry the moment the enemy develops his designs. If he fight at the Kenesaw Mountain I will turn it; but if he select the line of the Chattahoochee then I must study the case a little more before I commit myself.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General.

ALLATOONA, GA., June 8, 1864.

[General SHERMAN:]

GENERAL: To cover this pass and to guard the Etowah bridge four regiments of infantry and one battery of artillery have been detailed. At the southern end of the pass at least five redoubts will be necessary.

28 R R-VOL XXXVIII, PT IV