HDQRS. DEPT. WESTERN VIRGINIA AND EAST TENNESSEE, Zollicoffer, September 24, 1863.

His Excellency President DAVIS,
Richmond:

Your telegrams of yesterday and the day before received to-day. I am highly gratified by your expressions and the news you give. The enemy had been feeling us in front and on the right flank ever since my last dispatch. Last night they retired from Blountsville and the immediate front and went toward Watauga bridge. Their force seems to be nearly all mounted, which enables them to move rapidly and harass us in every direction. General Burnside commands, I presume, as I received a letter from him dated the 22nd asking me to notify the non-combatants to leave the villages along the line of the railroads, as the villages might be burned in the course of military operations. The damage to the railroad in my rear is very slight.

SAM. JONES,

Major-General.

RICHMOND, September 25, 1863.

General J. E. JOHNSTON:

Major F. W. Dillard, quartermaster at Columbus, Ga., can furnish 7,000 pairs shoes and 8,000 suits clothing. A few thousand blankets and tents here. What will you want?

A. R. LAWTON,

Quartermaster-General.

SUBSISTENCE DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Richmond, Va., September 25, 1863.

General J. E. JOHNSTON,

Commanding, Meridian, Miss.:

GENERAL: Your telegram of the 21st instant was received. It was referred to the honorable Secretary of War, and returned to this bureau with the following indorsement:

Answer General Johnston the purchasing commissary is under control of the bureau here; you can cause requisitions to be made on him and require reports from him.

J. A. S.,

Secretary of War.

Major W. H. Dameron, commissary of subsistence, is the chief purchasing commissary for the State of Mississippi and East Louisiana.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

L. B. NORTHROP,

Commissary-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE, In the Field, Missionary Ridge, September 25, 1863.

[General POLK:]

The general commanding desires that you will throw forward your skirmishers in the morning at daylight and feel the enemy. Generals Hill and Longstreet have been likewise directed.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
GEORGE WM. BRENT,

Assistant Adjutant-General.