pended. You will push that work to completion at once. Don't let any grass grow under your feet. with your party. Get through and then come away G. WEITZEL, Brigadier-General. General WEITZEL, Acting Chief of Staff: CHERRYSTONE, VA., July 15, 1864. Your telegram received. We think a regiment would be too large, whereas one company would be sufficient, which we suggest. Respectfully, OPERATORS, Mr. O'BRIEN: FORT POWHATAN, July 15, 1864. The lieutenant commanding guard states that there were 250 cavalry, commanded by Colonel White, of Thirteenth Virginia, passed through Cabin Point just before him yesterday morning, and a portion of their cavalry, cannot find how many, came back to Cabin Point yesterday p. m. and stayed over night near there. There was some infantry, but reports vary so much that I can get nothing reliable concerning them. Lieutenant is of the opinion that there is a force lying to trap us. L. M. PAINTER. CITY POINT, VA., July 15, 1864. COMMANDING OFFICER, Fort Monroe : Turn all steamers arriving from the south with troops to City Point. U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General. WASHINGTON, D. C., July 15, 1864–12.50 p. m. COMMANDING OFFICER, Fort Monroe, Va.: All troops of the Nineteenth Army Corps not belonging to the two divisions under General Emory will go directly to City Point. H. W. HALLECK, Major-General and Chief of Staff. HDQRS. DEPT. OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA, Brigadier-General Shepley will report at these headquarters at once. B. F. BUTLER, Major-General, Commanding. The Thirty-sixth [U. S. Colored Infantry] left here on the 30th of June. Three hundred and thirty men with eleven officers are absent with prisoners. It leaves us rather short. Maj. C. H. RAYMOND, JAMES BARNES, Brigadier-General. POINT LOOKOUT, July 15, 1864–7 p. m. Assistant Adjutant-General: All quiet. The Manhattan is here taking coal, with 1,200 troops for Washington from Philadelphia. Will leave at 8 p. m. J. BARNES, Brigadier-General, Commanding District. SPECIAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA, IV. The commanding general takes this occasion to express his regret at the loss of the Seventeenth Massachusetts Volunteers. The officers and men have served faithfully, and they have fairly earned the glad welcome they will surely receive in the Old Bay State. To the veterans of the regiment he also wishes to express his regret that he is not able at this time to permit them to go home with their comrades, but he hopes soon to be able to grant them the furlough so long deferred. By command of Brig. Gen. I. N. Palmer: J. A. JUDSON, Assistant Adjutant-General. CITY POINT, VA., July 16, 1864—4.40 p. m. Major-General HALLECK, Washington, D. C.: There can be no use in Wright following the enemy with the latter a day ahead, after he has passed entirely beyond (south of) all our communications. I want, if possible, to get the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps here, to use them here before the enemy can get Early back. With Hunter in the Shenandoah Valley and always between the enemy and Washington, force enough can always be had to check the invasion until re-enforcements can go from here. This does not prevent Hunter from following the enemy to Gordonsville and Charlottesville, if he can do it with his own force and such other improvised troops as he can get; but he should be cautious not to allow himself squeezed out to one side, so as to make it necessary to fall back into Western Virginia to save his army. If he does have to fall back it should be in front of the enemy, and with his force always between the latter and the main crossings of the Potomac. I do not think there is now any further danger of an attempt to invade Maryland. The position of the enemy in the West and here is such as to demand all the force they can get together to save vital points to them. The last attempt brought to the field so many troops that they cannot conceive the possibility of succeeding in capturing any important point, with a force of 30,000 or even 50,000 men, whilst the main Union army is within thirty hours of the capital. As soon as the rebel army is known to have passed Hunter's forces, recall Wright and send him back here with all dispatch, and also send the Nineteenth Corps. If the enemy have any notion of returning, the fact will be developed before Wright can start back. Major-General MEADE: U. S. GRANT, CITY POINT, VA., July 16, 1864. Six or seven days ago I asked to have General Ord assigned to command of Tenth Army Corps, but before my dispatch was received in Washington they had assigned him to the command of Eighth Corps and all troops in the Middle Department. I now receive a dispatch saying that he is ordered here, and probably it is to command the Tenth Corps. If so, General Humphreys will not be changed from his present place at present. U. S. GRANT, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Lieutenant-General GRANT: I forward you a report, just received from the chief of artillery, giv ing the time it will take to remove the siege guns and materials in case a sudden withdrawal of the army should become necessary after the siege operations have been entered upon. In compliance with your wishes, preparations have been continued for commencing the siege. Batteries are being erected for placing guns and mortars in position to silence the enemy's fire at the salient on the Jerusalem plank road. The chief engineer estimates that it will take eight days to finish these works and have them ready for their armament. The chief of artillery will require three days to unload the vessels now containing the siege guns, mortars, and materials. In case of withdrawal, besides the three days indicated in his report for withdrawing these guns, if reloaded at the landing where the vessels now are, Broadway Landing, it would require three additional days, but if they are carried to City Point and there reshipped, this last estimate would not enter into the calculation. I have deemed it proper to lay these facts before you, as they may be material to you in your future plans, and to say that I have directed the siege works to go on and in the course of three or four days shall commence the unloading of the guns and material. The mine will be ready in a day or two, but will not be loaded or sprung till the effect of our operations against the salient is ascertained. [Inclosure.] GEO. G. MEADE, Major-General. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Major-General HUMPHREYS: In compliance with the direction of the general commanding to furnish a report as to the time which would probably be required to withdraw the siege train and material in case it should be desirable, I have to state that the siege material which will be brought into requisition if operations are fully entered upon will be: Forty siege guns, for which must be kept on hand in the magazines for daily supply, 6,000 rounds of ammunition; for 6,000 rounds 100 wagons are required; for 30 mantlets 10 wagons; 40 platforms 40 wagons; implements, equipage, &c., 10 wagons; 20 8-inch mortars 20 wagons; 3,000 rounds of ammunition 60 wagons; implements and equipage 20 wagons; 20 10inch mortars, &c., 100 wagons; 20 Coehorn mortars and ammunition 30 wagons; total, 410 wagons. Twenty more 8-inch mortars are expected for the siege train, and if received will be used. To move them there will be required another 100 wagons. The loading of the material in order to withdraw it must be done by night, and probably even then under fire. The movement of so many wagons can scarcely be made and the noise of loading heavy bodies finished without being heard by the enemy when the lines are so near, as in this case; nor will it do to sacrifice any portion of the material if there is any prospect of its being needed within a month. But little over half the supply of ammunition estimated for has yet been received, although it is sent forward as rapidly as it can be procured. The time needed to load the wagons will be necessarily much longer than ordinarily required at depots. For instance, the positions of the batteries were not selected with any reference to convenience in this respect, and but few wagons can be brought up at a time or placed in favorable positions for loading, so that the number of men who can be employed at any given place will necessarily be limited. At many of the batteries the inconvenience and danger of providing the daily supply of ammunition will make a system of covered ways necessary for the men who transport it from wagons stationed so far in the rear as to find cover from the enemy's fire, and also from the approach of the wagons to these points. Time, therefore, becomes the most important element; forty-eight hours would, therefore, be necessary, under favorable circumstances, to remove the material. I do not think it probable that the entire train could be withdrawn in less than three days. The guns and platforms should be moved last, as their disappearance at an earlier time would warn the enemy of the movement in progress. For these reasons the planting of the batteries should not be commenced until it is determined to carry through the siege operations, or, as an alternativé, in case a sudden movement of the army should be deemed advisable, we are prepared to sacrifice a large portion of our material. Respectfully, H. J. HUNT, Brigadier-General and Chief of Artillery. HDQRS. U. S. ENGINEER BATTLN., ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, July 16, 1864. Maj. J. C. DUANE, Chief Engineer: MAJOR: I have the honor to report the following engineer operations during the past twenty-four hours: Captain Harwood reports the redoubt near Spicer's as finished, with the exception of the gorge and some unimportant details; states that it could be occupied at once if the emergency required. A line of rifle-pits has been extended from the redoubt to the left of the Norfolk road. Slashing timber proceeds on the right and left. About one-third of the line of rifle-pits connecting the two redoubts (that near Spicer's and the one near the Jones house) has been completed, and progress is making at one points. Lieutenant Howell reports a four-gun half-sunken siege battery laid out on General Ayres' front, parapet twenty feet at base; flank twenty-four feet long, of same thickness; one traverse ten feet thick. Ground broken last night with 200 men. Lieutenant Cuyler reports the revetment of a battery alongside of the one last referred to as completed, and the necessary thickness given to the parapet generally; some slight additional work required. Captain Gillespie reports the parapets of the batteries on General Griffin's right as increased to the proper thickness and the batteries ready for guns. Lieutenant Heap reports the rifle-pits supporting the battery at the Chieves house completed, extending to the woods on the right and nearly to the ravine on the left. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, G. H. MENDELL, Captain of Engineers, Commanding. WALTHALL STATION, July 16, 1864. Captain FISHER, Chief Signal Officer : No indication of movements this a. m. Intercepted messages: Colonel BRENT, Assistant Adjutant-General : 8.45 A. M. Two brigades infantry have just passed open space to our left of Cobb's, going toward the enemy's front of Chesterfield; two gun-boats off Point of Rocks. OPERATOR, At C. (Same to A. B.) 9.15 A. M. A. B.: Three regiments infantry just left Hare's house, going toward the enemy's left. |