General Williams, assistant adjutant general, with the addition that he was to report anything important to me. At 3 or 4 oclock Friday, the 13th, Lieutenant Watkins galloped to my quarters and reported hastily that Captain iRoyall had been attacked and overpowered. He had escaped the enemy through the woods. I received a strong impressionI do not remember his wordsthat the enemy was close upon my camp. I immediately ordered the cavalry alarm To ~ to be sounded, and sent an order to General Emory to take or send six squadrons of the Fifth and Sixth Cavalry, which were all of these regiments present, to support Royall or meet the enemy. I forwarded the report, to the best of my recollection, to Gen- eral Sykes, as the nearest division commander. These regiments were soon off, General Emory informing me that he had ordered Major Will- iams to command them. Looking for Rushs regiment of Lancers a few moments after, I found they had gone, and also General Emory. I supposed he had considered himself authorized to take them, and marched over to a field in rear of my camp toward the enemy with the First Cavalry, and found near there General Emory and Colonel Rushs regiment. 1 ordered them to positions until something more certain could be ascertained. Then information began to come ina report from Major Williams that. he had found the enemy in great force between him and Royalls position; one or two of Captain Royalls men, who reported they had retreated or escaped by the Cold Harbor road; Lieutenant Byrnes, who had been in the attack, who reported he had seen about five regiments of the enemys infantry; also a staff officer informed me that Colonel Warren was coming with a brigade of infantry and a foot battery of artillery to report to me. About this time I received various dispatches from General Porter, also from General Sykes, some of which I had anticipated. One from General Porter to notify General Emory and all troops near me. Another that he should like to see me at his headquarters, if I could leave my command, at 8 oclock; also General Emory. I then sent through General Emory, I believe, an order to Major Williams to hold his position, that re-enforcements were coming, to collect information, & c., and sent by General Emory the information received and dispatch to General Porter. I then ordered forward Colonel Warren, and finding that the cav- alry, from the great suddenness of the movement, were without rations of forage, I sent the First Cavalry and Rushs regiment a short distance to their camp, with~orders to remedy it and the First to move forward in about two hours, and requested General Emory to send forward a wagon of provisions to his brigade, which was done, and returned to my tent to get a cup of coffee, not being well and having had a long ride in the morning since taking food. I soon received an order from General Porter to send four squadrons of Rushs cavalry to report to General Sykes, which I immediately ordered or communicated (its fifth squadron had been sent forward as a picket on a road leading toward Hanover), with the copy of a dispatch from general headquarters to me to obey General Porters orders. Then, about dusk, I moved forward. I passed Colonel Warrens brigade within about 2 miles, and joined Major Williams at the cross of the Hanover road about 10 p. m. Found he had a picket a mile out at a defensible bridge over the Totopotomoy and a platoon. At first I thought to move in the direction the enemy had taken at Old Church, and could get no reliable information as to the enemy~s streng~th or whether he had much infantry. Soon Colonel WarreD arrived and