The department headquarters are at Manassas, and I expect to go there in a day or two.

ED. SCHRIVER,

Chief of Staff.

FRONT ROYAL, June 8, 1862.

Major-General McDOWELL,

Washington, D. C.:

Your telegram ordering department headquarters and Duffie's battalion to Manassas and Hartsuff's and Duryea's brigades to Warrenton was received in the night and is being executed. Do you desire any part destined for Manassas to go by rail? Is great promptness demanded? I ask this question because I cannot guess why the headquarters are ordered to Manassas, away from the mass of troops to be assembled at Warrenton.

ED. SCHRIVER,

Colonel and Chief of Staff.

WASHINGTON CITY [June 8, 1862].

Colonel SCHRIVER,

Chief of Staff, Front Royal:

The headquarters are sent to Manassas because they may either have to go to Fredericksburg or to Catlett's. No great dispatch is required.

King's division is ordered to Catlett's.

We are waiting for some information form General McClellan before our destination is fixed.

IRVIN McDOWELL,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS SHIELDS' DIVISION,
June 8, 1862.

Colonel SCHRIVER,

C. of S., Hdqrs. Army of the Rappahannock, Front Royal, Va:

I have the honor to state that your dispatch of the 5th instant has been received. Its contents are very satisfactory. I concur fully in the suggestions of the major-general commanding in relation to the remodeling of the department. I beg you will inform the general commanding that I have rigidly enforced his orders in relation to baggage, &c. My command marches with nothing now but arms, ammunition, subsistence, cooking utensils, blankets, and shelter-tents. We found, as I have already had the honor to communicate, all the bridges on the Shenandoah between us and the enemy burned. The incessant rains made every little mountain steam a torrent, and these torrents swelled the South Fork of the Shenandoah to such height that the possibility of crossing in any was or by any mode was out of the question. I contrived to push the head of my command as far as Conrad's Store, opposite to Harrisonburg, before this mud road became utterly impassable. Farther no human effort could go. The wheels sunk in the mud to the axle, and the mountain torrents cut between portions of my command and separated them. In this position we commenced building