The colonels, although ordered, have failed to furnish information, except Colonel William M. Bolles, who has made daily reports since ordered, but the number of men and the stations of troops are believed to be nearly correct.

H. J. SAMUELS,

Adjutant-General of Virginia.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, November 21, 1861.

Honorable SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of a dispatch (Numbers 25) received from our intelligent consul at Munich respecting the purchase of arms in Bavaria.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

[Inclosure.]

UNITED STATES CONSULATE,

Munich, October 31, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State, Washington:

SIR: Some facts which have just come to my knowledge induce me to write to the Department in regard to arms for sale by the Bavarian War Department. The whole number to be sold is as follows: 13,000 old flint-lock muskets, 6,000 percussion muskets (smooth-bore), and 1,500 rifled percussion arms with sword- bayonets.

Agents have made offers for the first two lots above mentioned, and these will probably be sold before information can reach here from America. I think, furthermore, that our Government will not want such arms. The third lot is unknown to any one except my informant, and will probably remain so long enough for an answer to this to arrive from Washington. The only reason why the Government will sell this lot of 1,500 is that a new gun, the invention of a Bavarian officer, is about being introduced. These guns were about to be sent as a reserve to a fortress, when my informant asked for a suspension of this action until he could obtain the information he has just sought of me.

The facts to which I refer as having induced me to write are as follows: My banker, who had doubtless been informed for this express purpose, told me that the Bavarian Government had received a letter from our consul at Hamburg with reference to the purchase of arms. He said further that the War Department was not accustomed to sell thus to governments, but rather to private persons, who might act as agents for an absent party. I was requested to give this information to the Hamburg consulate, which I did on the same day (October 4), but have received no acknowledgment of my letter. I now learn from a different person that our Government - by what one of its agents and whether it refers to the same case is not to me clear - has written to the Bavarian Department of Foreign Affairs with reference to the purchase of arms. This gentleman informs me that he has inquired at the War Department, where he is well known to all concerned in this matter, and he gives me the information stated above in regard to the arms to be sold by the Government here as the result entire.

My informant has been known to me personally for nearly three years, and I know no man in Munich upon whose integrity, upright