CUMBERLAND FORD, June 6, 1862.

Brigadier-General BOYLE,

Commanding U. S. Forces in Kentucky:

GENERAL: Accept my hearty congratulations. Permit me to suggest the propriety of stationing a regiment at Barboursville immediately. By the 9th instant I will have withdrawn every effective soldier from this valley, and my general hospital will be unprotected. The route between the ford and Cumberland Gap will be immediately obstructed by blowing down the ends of a few mountains into the valley, &c.; but raids may be possible.

GEORGE W. MORGAN,

Brigadier-General.

[Copy furnished Secretary of War by General J. T. Boyle, who adds: "I have no forces to send to Barboursville. We are in perilous need of more troops. Can we get more?"]

WASHINGTON, June 6, 1862.

Major-General BUELL,

Buell's Headquarters:

General Boyle was authorized to raise troops in Kentucky and placed in command upon the earnest application of the Kentucky delegation to the President. It was not know here that you had assigned General Duffield to any command in Kentucky. The Department has no design to interfere with your military arrangements without some necessity, but there was at the time great uneasiness in Kentucky, and it was supposed that your attention was absorbed by other more pressing subjects.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS, Madisonville, June 6, 1862.

Brigadier-General BOYLE:

SIR: I expected by this time to have been in Henderson and through that neighborhood with at least four companies of my command, but circumstances are such in this vicinity that I do not feel warranted in leaving it. If rumors that reliable Union men bring in here are correct there are at least 600 guerrillas in this section of country, and they are recruiting every day. I have been scouting every day since I have been here, and have taken some prisoners.

My pickets have been attacked twice. Last night the attack was more formidable than the night before. I had two men wounded, one dangerously, the other slightly. I should have at least four more companies of cavalry or infantry for the purpose of protecting my camp and trains. I am fully persuaded that I shall never be able to compete with these infernal devils without I have carbines. I have made at least one dozen requisitions for them, and even had an order on General Ripley from the Secretary of War to issue them to my regiment before I left Pennsylvania. Can you not send them to me immediately?