SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. General 'S OFFICE,.

Numbers 40.
Richmond, February 18, 1862.

* * * * *

XVIII. Brigadier-General Wise, with the Legion under his present command, exclusive of the light battery companies, will proceed with the least practicable delay to Manassas, and report to General J. E. Johnston, commanding Department of Northern Virginia.

* * * * *

By command of the Secretary of War:.

JNO. WITHERS,.

Assistant Adjutant-General..

RICHMOND, VA., February 19, 1862.

General JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, Centreville, Va.:

GENERAL: I have received your letter of the 16th instant, in reference to the reported removal of General G. W. Smith to East Tennessee..

I have not intended to withdraw General Smith from your command, and with regret have taken others..

Thanking you for the inclosures referred to in your postscript, I return them in accordance with request thereon. I am very anxious to see you. Events have cast on our arms and our hopes the gloomiest shadows, and at such a time we must show redoubled energy and resolution..

Very respectfully and truly, yours,.

JEFFERSON DAVIS..

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF LEWISBURG,.

Lewisburg, February 20, 1862.

General S. COOPER,.

Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.:

GENERAL: I propose to lay before the War Department all the reliable information that I have been able to gather since my arrival in this district and my views necessary for its defense..

The available force of the enemy in front is between 4,000 and 5,000 men. At present his force is scattered, but can be concentrated at any one of the points named in from four to five days..

The headquarters of the general commanding (Cox) is at Charleston, where he has one regiment; one regiment is between that point and the mouth of the Kanawha River; one is at or near Gauley Bridge; one at Fayette Court-House; one at Raleigh Court-House; one at Summersville. Everything that I hear, and from the undoubted fact that the enemy has accumulated and is still transporting large quantities of army supplies of all descriptions, including wagons, &c., to his depot at Gauley Bridge, justifies me in concluding that he intends making an early movements in the spring; or sooner, if the roads will permit..

By examining the map, it will be seen that there are two routes leading from his depot at Gauley Bridge by which he can advance. The first (and I conceive the most important) is through Raleigh Court-House, now in his possession, to Pack's Ferry, and thence by Peterstown to Dublin Depot, on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, or preferably from Raleigh to Princeton, the county seat of Mercer, where the roads.