WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJT. AND INSP. General 'S OFFICE,

Richmond, Va., July 31, 1863.

General JOSEPH E. Johnston,

Morton, MISS.:

Your command embraces the country WEST of the line between Georgia and Alabama, and running south to the Gulf, as before General Bragg's department was formed. Its western limit is the Mississippi River and its northern boundary the Tennessee River and Kentucky line.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

MORTON, MISS., July 31, 1863.

Honorable JAMES A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War:

The following telegram is forwarded for the information of the War Department:

MOBILE, ALA., July 30, 1863.

General JOSEPH E. Johnston:

A gentleman who left Vicksburg on Friday states that Grant is still in Vicksburg. Is repairing road to Jackson. Expect bridge over Big Black to be ready for transportation of cars in about thirty days. There is great and increasing sickness in the army, and their expectation is that it will be sixty days before they will move to Jackson. They propose to go to Meridian, to Demopolis, and to Selma, and then invest Mobile. They were actively organizing negro regiments, which they threw across into Louisiana as fast as organized. No large force has been sent up the river. Those sent were of Burnside's corps and troops whose time had expired. McPherson in command at Vicksburg; Parke at Snyder's Bluff. Informant is person of intelligence and veracity, with peculiar opportunities of information. Another officer just in from New Orleans with prisoners states that Banks' force has been recently increased from Grant, and that they propose soon sending one portion of 'Banks' army over into Louisiana, and another, 20,000 strong, to Pascagoula. Grant is collecting immense supplies of stores at Vicksburg.

DABNEY H. MAURY,

Major-General, Commanding.

J. E. Johnston.

RICHMOND, August 12, 1863.

General JOSEPH E. Johnston,

Morton, MISS.:

GENERAL: The limits of your department on the east and north seem settled by Special Orders, copies of which are herein inclosed; but as you request a more explicit statement defining them, I reply by letter. It is contemplated that your command shall embrace the country WEST of the Appalachicola and Chattahoochee Rivers, and of the Alabama and Georgia State line, until it strikes the southeastern corner of Calhoun County, in the former State; thence along the southern line of the following tier of counties in Alabama, to wit, Calhoun, Saint Clair, Blount, Morgan, Lawrence, and Franklin; thence along the Alabama and Mississippi State line to the Tennessee River, and along that river to its confluence with the Ohio River. The counties named above, and all the country north of them, come within the limit of General Bragg's department.

Very respectfully,&c.,

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.