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Major-General BUTLER,

Commanding, &c.:

CITY POINT, VA., July 5, 1864.

It will be necessary to keep up the patrol between Powhatan and Jamestown Island for the protection of our telegraph. I learn this morning that two miles and a half of wire is gone.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

Brigadier-General RAWLINS,

JULY 5, 1864—4 p. m.

Chief of Staff, Armies of the United States:

Will you be kind enough to order a 13-inch mortar and car on which it is to be fired, now at City Point, to be placed on the rail track and run out to General Smith; also, a car with a 30-pounder Parrott. I suppose both have arrived.

BENJ. F. BUTLER,
Major-General.

CITY POINT, July 5, 1864.

Major-General BUTLER:

The track of the railroad is now laid, General Ingalls informs me, to General Smith's headquarters, and the mortar is now here ready to be sent forward. Do you wish to have it sent to General Smith?

C. B. COMSTOCK, Lieutenant-Colonel and Aide-de-Camp.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA,
In the Field, July 5, 1861.

Lieutenant-Colonel COMSTOCK,

City Point:

General Butler requested Generals Ingalls and Rawlins in two dispatches to send the mortar and Parrott gun, both on their cars, to General Smith.

G. WEITZEL, Brigadier-General and Acting Chief of Staff.

General J. G. BARNARD,

City Point:

JULY 5, 1864,

General Butler has just received the following dispatch: General BUTLER:

Captain Farquhar went to Fort Monroe to settle his engineer, accounts upon an order from me, and not upon a sick leave. WM. F. SMITH, Major-General.

General Butler.requests me to inform you that since the 20th of May, Captain Farquhar has had two leaves before for that purpose, and that if he had such pressing need for an engineer officer he should not have

permitted Farquhar to go. He directs me further not to visit Smith's lines to-day, as he has recently seen them in person, and does not consider Lieutenant Michie of as much use there as here. Personally I beg of you to withhold an opinion in this matter until I can see and explain to you. Respectfully,

G. WEITZEL,
Brigadier-General.

General J. G. BARNARD, City Point:

JULY 5, 1864. (Sent 11 a. m.)

· Lieutenant Michie, whatever the necessities of General Smith are, is absolutely necessary here. I know what General Smith's needs are as well as if I visited his lines, but as you order it I will visit them as soon as I can to-day. I am now and have been for a week performing the duties of, and really am, in Colonel Shaffer's absence (who is sick at Fort Monroe), chief of staff at these headquarters, and Lieutenant Michie is really performing the duties of chief engineer. I have been serving in this department constantly on active service since the 3d of May, when to-day or any day since that date I can get a surgeon's certificate excusing me from all duty. These headquarters, although Captain Farquhar is under my orders, were not at all consulted in granting him a leave. If General Smith persists in having an engineer officer, why not give him one temporarily from the Army of the Potomac?

Respectfully,

General BARNARD, City Point:

G. WEITZEL,
Brigadier-General..

JULY 5, 1864. (Sent 12.35 p. m.)

I desire to add the following to my last dispatch: When General Smith left here to re-enforce General Meade at Cold Harbor, he applied for a regular engineer officer. Although with the great deal of work on hand here I had only two, I gave him Captain Farquhar, the older of the two. On his return he permitted Captain Farquhar to delay seyeral days at Fortress Monroe, and when he was ordered to Petersburg applied for Lieutenant Michie, who could not be spared. Now, again without consulting General Butler or myself, he again permits Farquhar to go and again applies for Lieutenant Michie, who can be spared less now than ever. I respectfully protest against any officer holding a position junior to these headquarters applying for one of the officers in my department by name. He has the right to apply for an officer to perforin certain duties if required, and then it becomes my duty to procure one if I have none on hand to send. If General Smith can by any means get my only reliable assistant detailed from me, it presunes, either that he knows more about my department than I do, or that I am not capable to preside over the department. It is certainly not right for him to apply direct to you, and is in direct disobedience of a general order from Lieutenant-General Grant promulgated about the beginning of this campaign.

Respectfully,

G. WEITZEL,
Brigadier-General,

Brig. Gen. G. WEITZEL,

HEADQUARTERS,
City Point, July 5, 1864.

Chief Engineer, Dept. of Virginia and North Carolina:

I wish to be distinctly understood as not assuming to give any orders whatever in the matter. General Smith has repeatedly asked me for Michie. It would have been better to have referred him at once to you, but I made myself the medium of making known his wants and wishes.

J. G. BARNARD, Brevet Major-General, &c.

JULY 5, 1864.

General BARNARD:

City Point:

I understand perfectly. I was solicitous that you should not form a wrong opinion in the matter.

G. WEITZEL,
Brigadier-General.

JULY 5, 1864—9 a. m.

Admiral LEE:

(Through General Foster.)

The commanding general requests that you assist General Foster to destroy all forage and grain in the vicinity of your boats.

General BUTLER:

LUDLOW,

Major and Aide-de-Camp.

[JULY 5, 1864.]

Two deserters from rebel ram Virginia were at the battery at Howlett's and report that guns are mounted, the caliber 7-inch and 10-inch smooth-bore, and one 200-pounder Parrott taken at Plymouth, and are working day and night to get them into position. They also report the rams as coming down to attack us as soon as the battery is ready, also the burning of the forage at Aiken's Landing and capture of one man, and will send a force to-night to capture the wagon trains. If your batteries on shore were ready they would assist us much.

MELANCTON SMITH, Captain and Senior Naval Officer.

RIVER-BANK (SPRING HILL) SIGNAL STATION,
July 5, 1864-7.45 a. m.

Captain NORTON:

A train of thirty cars, ten of them loaded with troops and three with forage, passed the Junction toward Petersburg.

SIMONS,

Lieutenant, Signal Officer.

Colonel ABBOT:

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

July 5, 1864.

Please send up to General Burnside to-morrow four 8-inch or 10-inch mortars, with sixty rounds of shell each; or two of each, with part of the 10-inch projectiles (shrapnel).

HENRY J. HUNT,

Brigadier-General.

Col. H. L. ABBOT,

Broadway:

JULY 5, 1864. (Sent 10.15 a. m.)

The commanding general directs that you send Company K, of the One hundred and thirty-eighth Regiment Ohio National Guard, back to its regiment and keep for your detail the Companies E and H, which were sent by Colonel Fisher; that Colonel Fisher must be allowed to regulate without interference details from his own regiment. Colonel Fisher is a graduate of West Point, a man of the highest education and intelligence, and is supposed to be able to do this. He says, justly, that if he is not he is not fit to command the regiment. It is known here that Company K has had several days' experience with you, but this advantage, as the material of the regiment is quite intelligent, is not considered sufficient to virtually take from Colonel Fisher the command of his regiment.

G. WEITZEL, Brigadier-General and Acting Chief of Staff.

JULY 5, 1864. (Sent 12.40 p. m.)

Col. H. L. ABBOT,

Broadway:

Please have the mortars mounted and ready to be fired before dusk to-day. General Butler desires it. Have detachments there to man them.

G. WEITZEL, Brigadier-General and Acting Chief of Staff.

Capt. A. MORDECAI,

HEADQUARTERS SIEGE TRAIN,

July 5, 1864.

Chief Ordnance Officer, Butler's Headquarters:

Lieutenant Faxon has been relieved by Capt. S. P. Hatfield as ordnance officer for my heavy guns. Will you please direct all invoices bereafter, including the water battery material, to be made out accord

ingly.

HENRY L. ABBOT, Colonel First Connecticut Artillery.

HEADQUARTERS SIEGE ARTILLERY,

Broadway Landing, Va., July 5, 1864.

Captain EDSON,

Ordnance Officer, Fort Monroe:

Will you please order the 8-inch mortar shells now at Bermuda Hundred, sent about two months ago, to be issued to Capt. S. P. Hatfield, First Connecticut Artillery, my ordnance officer, and have invoices made out accordingly. They have never been turned over to Captain Mordecai.

HENRY L. ABBOT,

Colonel First Connecticut Artillery,

JULY 5, 1864-11.15 a. m.

Capt. ALFRED MORDECAI,

Chief Ordnance Officer, Butler's Headquarters:

I am informed that the 100-pounder gun at Curtis' house and the water battery will probably be ready to mount to night; also, perhaps, the Sawyer gun at Crow's Nest battery. I would, therefore, request that 100 rounds of ammunition for each of these guns, together with the implements and equipments, may be forwarded at once to the batteries, and invoiced to Capt. S. P. Hatfield, First Connecticut Artillery, stationed at these headquarters. The magazines are in readiness, and I have ordered the cannoneers to the guns.

HENRY L. ABBOT, Colonel First Connecticut Artillery, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS,

Colonel ABBOT,

July 5, 1864. (Sent 12.45 p. m.)

First Connecticut Artillery, Broadway:

The 10-inch mortars are ready to be mounted at Crow's Nest. I have but one gin and that is at the Curtis house. I have ordered implements and ammunition to be sent to the battery. Your telegram just received.

A. MORDECAI,
Captain of Ordnance.

Captain HART,

Bermuda Hundred:

HEADQUARTERS,

July 5, 1864. (Sent 12.10 p. m.)

Send to Crow's Nest the implements for the two 10-inch mortars, also powder, fuses, and shell for 100 rounds. They must be there by 3 p. m. Lieutenant Prouty will take and deliver them to an officer at the battery.

A. MORDECAI,
Captain of Ordnance.

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