WINCHESTER, VA., July 13, 1862-8 a.m .

Colonel GEORGE D. RUGGLES,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

I inspected this morning, with General Piatt and Captain Powell, the engineer officer, the intrenchments near Winchester, and found everything going on pretty well. The intrenchments are laid out on commanding points, and will be large enough to take up all the troops, baggage wagons, and stores. One redoubt armed; three of the 20-pounders are nearly finished and an abatis made around the camp, so that surprise is impossible. In a few days General Piatt will be enabled to make a good resistance against a superior force. He now with him six 20-pounders, four 6-pounders, and four mountain howitzers, all well provided with ammunition. He will also send for twelve Ellsworth guns, now at Wadesville. These guns will be of better service behind intrenchments than in the field.

The cavalry has not arrived yet. Seven companies are snow at Martinsburg. They could be immediately sent here, as there are here 500 revolvers, with ammunition, to arm them. General Piatt has no cavalry at all, and needs it very much. All stores are removed from Middletown, and the troops stationed there have left for Front Royal or Winchester. At Martinsburg there is one regiments of infantry (the Sixty-fifth Illinois), besides the seven companies of cavalry. At Harper's Ferry are four regiments of infantry, and one militia regiment guards the railroad from Winchester to Harper's Ferry. Nothing new from General Kelley or Moorefield, and all quiet toward Strasburg. I will leave for Front Royal in half an hour.

F. SIGEL,

Major-General.

Numbers 6.] FLAT TOP MOUNTAIN, July 13, 1862.

Colonel GEORGE D. RUGGLES,

Asst. Adjt. General, Army of Virginia, Washington, D. C.:

Nothing from you since my Nos. 4 and 5 were sent. Fear some miscarriage of dispatches. Everything here is kept in action, as the commanding general's last dispatch received seemed to imply the speedy forwarding of instructions, and any considerable movement here might interfere with orders. I shall hope to hear soon. Some skirmishing with bushwhackers and reconnoitering parties of the enemy occasionally.

J. D. COX,

Brigadier-General.

FLAT TOP, July 13, [1862.]

Colonel GEORGE CROOK,

Commanding, &c., Meadow Bluff:

I am kept in hourly expectation of the decision of General Pope as to plan of operations, but it has not yet come. The large re-enforcements sent to McClellan appear to have interfered with this department, yet we do not get permission to act alone. There have been some indications of the enemy's preparing to concentrate on your side of the river. I am watching, and we will have a rap at them, if not otherwise ordered. They are reported to have twelve cannot in vicinity of Union, and I