Adjutant-General's Office to CuRTIN, Harrisburg, Pa, July 21, 1861

Governor CuRTIN, Harrisburg, Pa. : Please send the Wisconsin regiment at Harrisburg to report to the general at Baltimore instead of Harper’s Ferry. Send all the regiments at Harrisburg and elsewhere to Baltimore. JULY 21, 1861. Commander DAHLGREN, Navy-Yard: Send an armed vessel at once to Alexandria, to command as much as possible the approaches to Alexandria. MANSFIELD, Brigadier-General. JULY 21, 1861. Brigadier-General MCDOWELL, at Fairfax Court-House: By General Scott’s orders I send you four regiments, brigaded under Colonel McCunn, to Fairfax Station, to wit: the Thirty-seventh, Colonel McCunn; Fifteenth, Colonel Murphy; Twenty-sixth, Colonel Christian; Twenty-fifth, Colonel Kerrigan. They should all be at the point above designated by 6 p. m. They have three days’ supply of rations. MANSFIELD, Brigadier-General. JULY 21, 1861. General Runyon, Alexandria: Hold my two last regiments at Alexandria and man your lines. McDowell is on the retreat. MANSFIELD, Brigadier-General, FAIRFAX, July 21, 1861—7.45 p. m. General Runyon, Alexandria: I reported with the De Kalb regiment at Centreville in person to General McDowell, who is there protecting the retreat of his army on the right flank. \ . (fire OPERATIONS IN MD., PA., VA., AND W. VA, [Cmap. IX. The First and Second three-years’ New Jersey are there. The First three-months’ and Third three-years’ New Jersey are at Fairfax Station. General McDowell wishes you to communicate with General Scott whether you will take any of the regiments out of the forts. BEVERLY, VA., July 22 [?], 1861. General WINFIELD Scott: Your telegraph of 8 p. m. received. I am much pained at its contents. My three-months’ men are homesick and discontented with their officers, and determined to return at once. When I suggested the Staunton movement I expected these regiments to unite in it. I should be compelled to fight the enemy now ascertained in force at Monterey, and should reach Staunton without men enough to accomplish much. MeDowell’s check would greatly increase my difficulties and render numerous detachments necessary to keep open my communications and protect my flanks. How would it meet your views were I to leave, say, four regiments at Huttonsville and in the strong position of Cheat Mountain, one at Beverly, one at Bulltown, and send two or three and a better general to re-enforce Cox, then move with the rest by railroad to New Creek, on Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and effect a junction with Patterson near Jamesburg, on the road from New Creek to Charlestown ? With this force, in addition to such State troops as Pennsylvania can furnish, we should be able either to defeat Johnston or separate him from Beauregard, and, connecting with McDowell, fight them in detail. Ishall know early to-morrow the exact condition of the three-years’ regiments now in Ohio and Indiana. Depending upon that information, I can join Patterson with probably fifteen thousand men besides such as Pennsylvaniacan furnish. The time required would be about seven days, perhaps six, from the day on which I receive your orders until the junction with Patterson at Jamesburg. This, though not so brilliant a plan as a movement on Staunton, appears to me the sounder and safer one. Whatever your instructions may be, I will do my best to carry them out. I will suspend all further preparations for my projected movement on Kanawha until I hear from you. Please reply by telegraph at once. GEO. B. McCLELLAN, Major-General, U. S. Army. . Washington, July 22, 1861. General A. S. Johnston, of the Confederate Army, is marching with a large force into Northwestern Virginia. The operator at Grafton will get this message to General McClellan wherever he may be. JNO. 8S. CARLILE. HEADQUARTERS, July 22, 1861—1 a, m. General MCCLELLAN, Beverly, Va. : After fairly beating the enemy, and taking three of his batteries, a panic seized McDowell’s army, and it is in full retreat on the Potomac, ea ine ‘CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.—UNION. _A most unaccountable transformation into a mob of a finely-appointed and admirably-led army. Five regiments have been ordered to join you from Ohio. Brigadier-General Reynolds has been commissioned and ordered to report to you. Remain in your present command instead of going to the Valley of the Shenandoah.

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,