HEADQUARTERS LONGSTREET'S CORPS,
Near Richmond, Va., October 18, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel H. E. PEYTON,

Asst. Adjt. and Insp. General, Army of Norther Virginia:

COLONEL: On the 7th of August Lieutenant-General Anderson and staff left Richmond with Kershaw's division to co-operate with Lieutenant-General Early in the Valley of Virginia; returned to Gordonsville on the 22nd of September. The division was ordered on that date to report to Lieutenant-General Early, and Lieutenant-General Anderson to report with his staff to headquarters Army of Northern Virginia, which he did on the 27th of September.*

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNumbers W. FAIRFAX,

Major and Assistant Adjutant and Inspector General.

WILMINGTON, N. C., October 18, 1864.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.:

Can I have the battalion of cavalry recommended by General Lee from South Carolina?

W. H. C. WHITING,

Major-General.

[Indorsement.]

Respectfully referred to General B. Bragg.

JOHN W. RIELY,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

(Copy sent to the Secretary of War.)

HEADQUARTERS,
Wilmington, N. C., October 18, 1864.

General ROBERT E. LEE,

Commanding Army of Northern Virginia, Petersburg:

GENERAL: I have received your letter of 8th instant.+ I hope the battalion of cavalry you recommended to be sent from South Carolina will be promptly forwarded. I am in great hopes of getting a respectable force from the State, though I could wish to have it at once to put in some sort of training as well as familiarity with the locality. I am very glad that you have advocated the detention of the privateer expedition. I have most earnestly protested against it. They are still, however, impressing coal with a view to go out on the dark of this moon. This will be about the 23rd. As no orders have yet come to stop it, I hope you will press your recommendation. The Tallahassee's cruise has already cost some ten ships and your army a very large amount of supplies, and this one, if persisted in, will make all receipts extremely precarious. The enemy have prepared ten steam launches,

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*Some matters of detail omitted from this letter.

+Not found.

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