Pennsylvania Volunteers, simultaneously displayed their flags. The greater number of the batteries were ready for service, when in great haste the enemy, on the night of the 3rd instant, abandoned Yorktown and the line of works on the Warwick. On the 5th all batteries would have been completed in time to open fire that night. Battery Numbers 1, on the 1st instant, opened fire upon the town and wharf, and succeeded in driving from the latter vessels which appeared to be landing troops and ammunition. The destructive effects of this battery, and the presumed knowledge of the enemy of the probable time the other batteries would open, must have been the main cause of the sudden evacuation of Yorktown, and abandonment of the line of the Warwick, as it cannot be doubted that the fire of these batteries would in a few hours have been most destructive upon the enemy and rendered untenable the works of Yorktown, without which the defenses of the Warwick were useless.

I desire to call the attention to the reports heretofore forwarded of General Jameson, Colonel McQuade, and Colonel Lansing, generals of the trenches, which exhibit the state of affairs at the last moment of the siege and the occupation of Yorktown.* Eager for the success of our cause; intelligent, earnest, and laborious in the performance of duty; energetic in requiring the same of all under them; guarding against unnecessary exposure of their men, yet regardless of danger to themselves, they represent the spirit of all officers, from other divisions as well as my own, with whom my duties have thrown me in contact. In this connection I desire also especially to mention Brigadier-General Morell, Martindale, Birney, Butterfield, and Grover, and Colonel J. H. Hobart Ward, all generals of the trenches. Lieutenant Colonel Strong Vincent Eighty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers; Lieutenant Colonel Howard [Thos. W.] Egan, Fortieth New York, and Major Holt, whose intelligence, energy, good judgment, and system in the control of the working parties cannot be too highly commended.

In addition to my own division were employed in the labors of the siege the division of Hooker and Hamilton and the regular troops under Brigadier-General Sykes. As far as came under my observation all performed their laborious and oftentimes dangerous duty cheerfully and effectively. A few complaints were made by the engineers and officers in charge of working parties of negligence on the part of some troops, but the complaints were very rare.

I must leave to the brigade and regimental commanders to give the names and labors of junior officers, whose services are especially deserving of commendation for their cheerful, energetic labors and frequent gallant acts during the siege, and I refer to their reports for the extensive list. In my own command I desire to present the names of the following regiments, which, under their respective commanders, were continually in the trenches, and most faithfully and cheerfully, under all circumstances, frequently most trying, performed their laborious and dangerous duties during the thirty days of the siege: Second Maine, Colonel C. W. Roberts, and Lieutenant-Colonel Varney; Fourth Michigan, Colonel Woodbury; Sixteenth Michigan, Colonel Stockton and Major Welch; Ninth Massachusetts, Colonel Cass; Eighteenth Massachusetts, Colonel J. Barnes, Lieutenant-Colonel Ingraham, and Major Hayes; Twenty-second Massachusetts, Colonel J. A. Gove, Lieutenant-Colonel Friswold, and Major Tilton; Sixty-second Pennsylvania, Colonel S. W. Black and Lieutenant-Colonel Sweitzer; Eighty-third Pennsylva-

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*See Jameson's, Numbers 53, and McQuade's, Numbers 55; Lansing's, not found.

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