ters station the knowledge gained from observations made here. This station was little used.

When, on the 30th of April, the siege battery of 100 and 200 pounder Parrott guns, which bad been established at this place, opened upon the works at Yorktown and Gloucester, signal officers at this station were communicating with others placed at Moore's house, near Yorktown, who thence reported the effect of the shots in so far as they were able to note them. The signal officers at the battery were of course exposed to the shots with which the enemy replied to the battery near which they were stationed. The signal officers at the battery were of cause exposed to the shots with which the enemy replied to the battery near which they were stationed. The signals were not permitted to be interrupted. The signal officers at Moor's house were directly in the line of both fires, the shells from the combatants passing high in the air over their heads. This position, though one of little danger, was not desirable, some of the large shells falling short and exploding near it.

A signal station (Numbers 5.) communicating with the fleet had been opened at Moore's house on the 7th of april This point was chosen with a view to directing the fire of our naval guns in the attack on Yorktown, then thought to be impending, and also for the purpose of momentarily informing the fleet of the progress of our land forces, whose assault was to be simultaneous.

Moore's house (located on the bank of York River) was directly under the heaviest guns of Yorktown, a mile distant. The beach at the foot of the bank on which the house was placed was commanded by the water battery on the beach at Yorktown. Trees clustering along the top and water edge of the bank, and reaching from near the enemy's works nearly to this house, offered a cover for rebel sharpshooters. This station was first visited and long messages sent from it to the fleet by a party of the corps on the this day after the army arrived before Yorktown, and while the place was yet some distance beyond our pickets. As a station of observation and communication this point was unrivaled. From it one looked down upon the works at Gloucester and their approaches, about 2 miles distant; upon the wharves and water batteries at Yorktown and the whole channel of the river and the bay spread out in view. Inland there could be traced the outline of the works at Yorktown proper, and there was had in view much of the open country between those works and our lines. This place was now permanently occupied as signal station, communicating with the station at headquarters. When the signal flag was first discovered by the enemy near this house two light field pieces were run up by them in easy range and the officers were driven from their station by their fire, but only to return so soon as the fire ceased.

As the siege advanced the fire on the station became more serious. Lieutenant Israel Thickstun, Eighty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers, and acting signal officer, was stricken senseless by a fragment of a shell while serving on it. The shells were very frequently exploding near it, the station receiving many of the shots aimed at our parallel in front of it. The working station was not reasonably tenable. The officers were instructed to shelter themselves near Moore's house, and to make report by signals only in case of emergency. The station was thus held until the evacuation of Yorktown. Its occupation was of the most use in the early days of the investment, when there were fears of a possible sortie of the enemy in that direction.

A station (N. 4.) of observation was established in a point of woods south of Yorktown, at the junction of the Hampton and Warwick roads. This station was a mile from the works at Yorktown, and yet nearer the enemy's work known as the Red Redoubt. Communications hence