RICHMOND, October 21, 1861.

General JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, Centreville, Va.:

Ransom's regiment leaves here to-morrow morning to join you by route march.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

Proceedings of a meeting of the citizens of Lancaster and Nort- humberland Counties, Virginia.

OCTOBER 21, 1861.

At a meeting of the citizens of Lancaster and Norhumberland, held at Lancaster Court-House, on Monday, the 21st day of October, 1861, William T. Jessee was called to the chair, and H. S. Hathaway appointed secretary. Samuel Gresham, esq., stated the object, and submitted for the consideration of the meeting the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted, viz:

Whereas it is know that in each of the counties of Westmoreland, Richmond, and Northumberland there is a full number of regimental and staff officers of the militia in the service of the State or the Confederate States, and that is the county of Lancaster there is a colonel, surgeon, quartermaster, and commissary, and in all of the said counties a large number of companies with a full quota of company officers;

And whereas it is also well known that, by the volunteering of a large number of the men subject to military duty in the said counties, the regiments and companies in those counties, respectively, are but skeletons, no one of the said regiments containing as many as 400 men, rank and file, as required by the eleventh section of chapter 23 of the Code of Virginia, and it is believed, from information derived from gentlemen of the highest respectability for intelligence and truth in the several counties, that no one of the said regiments contains 300 men, rank and file, which is necessary to prevent a dissolution of the said regiments, according to the same section of the same chapter of the Code;

And whereas we have been informed by gentlemen of the highest respectability for intelligence and truth, residing in the county of Richmond, that while the said regiment is reported as containing largely over 300 men, that at no time since the militia of that county has been ordered into service have they had over 200 effective men in camp; that many whose names appear upon the muster rolls of the several companies in that county were furloughed when first called into camp and sent home, where they still remain, unable to perform service, and this through they were examined by the surgeon of the regiment and pronounced unfit for military service;

And whereas some of their companies have not more than from 30 to 40 men, with a full force of company officers;

And whereas we are informed that after the proclamation of the governor, of the-day of July, calling out the militia of the State, and the subsequent proclamation excepting such counties as had furnished their quota, and also such counties as might make up their quota by other volunteer companies, to be then immediately formed and mustered into service, the militia officers of some, if not all, of the said counties did discourage and by all means in their power prevent the formation of other volunteer companies in their counties;