Colonel ABBOT, Broadway Landing: JULY 13, 1864. What The Fourth New York Artillery is ordered to report to me. instructions shall I give the colonel? Colonel McGilvery, commanding reserve artillery, is disposable; do you want him? It would be well now to finally arrange operations in detail. It would perhaps be well for you to come up. I am not well and cannot go down to see you. H. J. HUNT, Brigadier-General. BROADWAY LANDING, VA., July 13, 1864. Brigadier-General HUNT, Headquarters Army of the Potomac : I was about starting for the James River water batteries this evening intending to go to your headquarters early to-morrow morning. If you prefer me to come at once I will start immediately. Please let me know your wishes in the matter. HENRY L. ABBOT, Colonel First Connecticut Artillery. P. S.-The 13-inch mortar broke its truck-car on the fourth shot. We are about trying to repair it. Col. H. L. ABBOT: HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, July 13, 1864. General Hunt desires me to say that it will do if you come up early tomorrow morning. W. S. WORTH, Lieutenant and Aide-de-Camp. BROADWAY, July 13, 1864. (Received 4.30 p. m.) General WEITZEL: Does the general intend to try the experiments to-night on the Crow's Nest battery? HENRY L. ABBOT, Colonel First Connecticut Artillery. HDQRS. DEPT. OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA, HDQRS. DEPT. OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA, General W. T. H. BROOKS: In the Field, July 13, 1864. The commanding general directs that you furnish me with a list of names of officers of Terry's and Foster's command above the rank of captain who have fallen since the 1st of May, in order that the forts and batteries on the line may be named after them. Please furnish them as quickly as possible. Respectfully, G. WEITZEL, Brigadier-General and Acting Chief of Staff. (Copy to commanding general Eighteenth Army Corps.) BROOKS' HEADQUARTERS, July 13, 1864. Brigadier-General WEITZEL: The only officer above the rank of captain who has been killed since May 1 is Lieut. Col. W. P. Spofford, Eleventh Regiment Maine Volun teers. W. T. H. BROOKS. HEADQUARTERS SECOND DIVISION, TENTH ARMY CORPS, Colonel CURTIS: I am instructed by the general commanding to inform you that his scout reports a fatigue party of about fifty men of the enemy's at work upon the salient directly in front of the lone cedar tree. Please send word to Lieutenant-Colonel Coan that they are on the right of his front also. Let your pickets open upon them. By direction of General Turner: ISRAEL R. SEALY, Captain, Forty-seventh New York Vols., Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen. HEADQUARTERS TENTH ARMY CORPS, In the Field, Hatcher's, Va., July 13, 1864. Brig. Gen. O. S. FERRY, Commanding Third Division: GENERAL: In reply to your communication of this morning relative to the disposition of troops on the picket-line I am directed by the brigadier-general commanding to say that in making the new arrangements the 400 men spoken of by you as already present on the line did not enter into the calculation. The intention was that the 200 men from General Terry, re-enforced by at least 200 from your own command and as many more as you might deem necessary, should constitute the whole force on that line. The brigadier-general commanding directs that the arrangement suggested in your letter be adopted. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, ED. W. SMITH, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS EIGHTEENTH ARMY COrps, Colonel SHAFFER: Heavy trains, and several of them, were run during the night into the city of Petersburg from Richmond. Very heavy firing during the night; supposed to be on the front of the Second or Fifth Corps. J. H. MARTINDALE, Maj. Gen. B. F. BUTLER : JULY 13, 1864. There is a rebel battery firing on our transports at Wilcox's Wharf at the bend of the river just above this place. Major-General BUTLER: No gun-boat here. BERMUDA, July 13, 1861. I have just come up the river from near Wilcox's Wharf. Captain Fitch, with the army gun-boat Parke, was near there when a section of artillery fired into the transport this p. m. and shelled them out, afterward landing a party to ascertain where they were gone. (Forwarded to Lieutenant-General Grant.) C. K. GRAHAM, Brigadier-General. CHERRYSTONE, July 13, 1864. Major-General BUTLER, Headquarters: GENERAL: Rumors through rebel sympathizers give us fears of another raid upon this post, which at this time is invaluable to the Government, business from the whole Western army, Baltimore, &c., passing through this office thence to Washington via Point Lookout. Only eighteen men here, and we respectfully ask that you will increase the force to protect us in the discharge of our duties. Please answer immediately. W. A. DUNN, Operators. FLAG-SHIP MALVERN, Hampton Roads, July 13, 1864–12 m. Hon. GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of the Navy: (Received 11.15 p. m.) I leave here now to look after Potomac division of my squadron. Fleet captain remains here. S. P. LEE, Acting Rear Admiral. FORT MONROE, July 13, 1864. Major-General BUTLER: Your dispatch dated July 11 just received. New York not here. Mail-boat gone. Shall I come by special boat? Shall I bring those persons awaiting transfer through the lines? Captain Cassels can give you a list of them. JNO. E. MULFORD, Major and Assistant Agent for Exchange. Maj. J. E. MULFORD: GENERAL BUTLER'S HEADQUARTERS, July 13, 1864. Come up with the people you mention on a special boat so as to be here not later than 10 a. m. to-morrow. Don't fail to put your artillery in position to-day, and if possible complete your additional field-works. By order of the Secretary of War: W. HOFFMAN, Commissary-General of Prisoners. HDQRS. DEPT. OF WASHINGTON, 22D ARMY CORPS, July 13, 1864. GENERAL: I am directed by the major-general commanding to ask how many mounted men you have on patrol duty at your post, and what disposition has been made of the eighty horses turned over to Captain Goodwin, quartermaster, for this purpose? Very respectfully, J. H. TAYLOR, Chief of Staff and Assistant Adjutant-General. Col. J. H. TAYLOR, POINT LOOKOUT, July 13, 1864. Chief of Staff, Department of Washington: I have only thirty mounted men. Fifty of the horses turned over to Captain Goodwin were reported by him unfit for cavalry service. I can use fifty of the quartermaster's horses to make up the eighty. JAMES BARNES, Brigadier-General, Commanding District. CITY POINT, VA., July 14, 1864. Major-General HALLECK, Washington, D. C.: It would seem from dispatches just received from Mr. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, that the enemy are leaving Maryland. If so, Hunter should follow him as rapidly as the jaded condition of his men will admit. The Sixth and Nineteenth Corps should be got here without any delay, so that they may be used before the return of the troops sent into the Valley by the enemy. Hunter, moving up the Valley, will either hold a large force of the enemy or he will be enabled to reach Gordonsville and Charlottesville. The utter destruction of the road at and between these two places will be of immense value to us. I do not intend this as an order to bring Wright back while he is in pursuit of the enemy with any prospect of punishing him, but to secure his return at the earliest possible moment after he ceases to be absolutely necessary where he is. Colonel Comstock, who takes this, can explain to you fully the situation here. The enemy have the Weldon road completed, but are very cautious about bringing cars through on it. I shall endeavor to have it badly destroyed, and for a long distance, within a few days. I understand from a refugee that they have twentyfive miles of track yet to lay to complete the Danville road. If the enemy has left Maryland, as I suppose he has, he should have upon his heels veterans, militiamen, men on horseback, and everything that can be got to follow to eat out Virginia clear and clean as far as they go, so that crows flying over it for the balance of this season will have to carry their provender with them. U. S. GRANT, CITY POINT, VA., July 14, 1864-2 p. m. Major-General HALLECK, Washington, D. C.: For the last few days I have made every effort to ascertain whether the enemy have further detached to send north. He shows everywhere as strong a front as he has done from the start, and deserters constantly coming in locate every division of Longstreet's and Hill's corps and Beauregard's force. If any detachments have been made it has been brigades and not divisions, and I have no evidence of even this having been done. I received a communication from Lee, dated the 10th, showing his presence at that time, but I received oue dated the 13th from Beauregard in answer to one directed to Lee. This I do not understand. It seems to me that by promptly pushing the enemy he can be driven from Maryland with great loss. Now, however, it will be necessary to hold force enough in the city to hold the enemy at bay, if he should attack, until re-enforcements can be got.. I have sent Ord four batteries from here, and will direct him to push out, and, at least, develop the enemy in his front and drive him if he can. Not being able to communicate with all the commanders, it will be hard to get anything like unity of action, but if they will push boldly from all quarters the enemy will certainly be destroyed. If I find further detachments have been sent from here I will make a determined push to obtain a firm foothold that will ultimately secure Richmond and be easily held, and detach all I can. U. S. GRANT, *See Vol. XXXVII, Part II, pp. 259, 260. |