[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS FIFTH PROVISIONAL CORPS,
Harrison's Landing, July 9, 1862

Respectfully forwarded for the information of the major-general commanding. I was present at the skirmish of the First Maryland Battery with the enemy,and have to commend the admirable manner in which it was maneuvered and served, subjected as it was to a hot fire from various directions, and from some guns at pretty close range. I was struck with the coolness of the men and officers, who I believe were for the first time under fire.

I also saw Captain Benson at Hanover Court-House, where his services were invaluable, not more in the action than in the after operations of destroying the bridges over the South Anna. I commend Captain Benson to favorable consideration of the commanding general.

F. J. PORTER,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

Report of Major Alexander Doull, Second New York Artillery, Ordnance Officer of Siege Train, of the siege.

COLONEL: The siege of Yorktown being terminated by the evacuation of that place by the rebel forces just when nearly the whole of the siege batteries were ready to open fire, I have the honor to submit for your consideration the following report of the work which has been performed by the officers and men of your regiment in arming the siege batteries at that place:

During the seven days that elapsed from the 26th of April to the evacuation of Yorktown all the batteries have been fired at more or less continuously, and though the regiment has never before been under fire, and is, like the rest of this army, composed of troops who have not been twelve months in the service, and who would, therefore, be considered in any regular artillery in the world merely as recruits, and the officers have not had the advantage of that scientific military train-service, and although a large portion of the material employed has been of a weight hitherto completely unknown in sieges, and has, therefore, fined to permanent works, on account of the labor, care, and accuracy required for their construction, yet the condition of the batteries and the accuracy with which all the platforms have been laid and the magazines arranged give no indication whatever of these disadvantages.

The siege train at present in battery and under my charge consists of two 200-pounder and five 100-pounder Parrotts at Battery Numbers 1., manned by Battery B, commanded by Major Kellogg; five 4 1/2-inch guns and five 30-pounder Parrotts at Battery Numbers 2., manned by Batteries A and H, commanded by Major Hemingway; ten 13-inch sea-service mortars, 1861, at Batter Numbers 4., manned by Batteries F and G, commanded by Major Doull; six 10-inch sea-service mortars, 1861, at Battery Numbers 6., manned by Battery C, commanded by Captain Burbank; ten 10-inch siege mortars at Battery Numbers 9, manned by Batteries D and E, commanded by Major Trumbull; five 4 1/2-inch rifles at Battery Numbers 10,