that fresh potatoes, fresh onions, dried apples, and desiccated vegetables be immediately ordered to be issued as parts of the daily rations, and that the commanding officers be charged with the duty of seeing them daily and properly used.

As I am closing this letter I receive the following dispatch from Colonel Clarke in reply to my telegram:

Potatoes, dried apples, and desiccated vegetables have been sent to the depot near Fair Oaks Station, from which General Sumner's corps draws its supplies. More will be sent. I do not know a single command in which Special Orders, No. 155, Headquarters Army of the Potomac, have been complied with. Could not the medical directors insist on having it carried out in their respective corps?

The means, then, of preventing scurvy have always been ready for issue in the subsistence department. The responsibility for its occurrence rests with those who have neglected to use those means. I think stringent orders necessary to compel regimental officers to see that their men are provided with and habitually use these necessary articles.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHS. S. TRIPLER,

Surgeon and Medical Director, Army of the Potomac.

(Copy for General Williams.)

HEADQUARTERS FOURTH CORPS, June 15, 1862.

Brigadier General S. WILLIAMS,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Army of the Potomac:

SIR: I am just in from General Casey's headquarters.

The cessation of the rains a few days past has dried up the White Oak Swamp to a certain degree, and it is fordable in many places. If the enemy has force to spare for a diversion, Casey is took weak in that quarter.

A reconnoitering party of cavalry from Casey's camp proceeded to-day to within 2 1/2 miles of the James River and examined the roads toward Richmond. They discovered but a few mounted pickets, and captured a horse and equipments and a carbine or two.

I remain, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

E. D. KEYES,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Fourth Corps.

McCLELLAN'S, June 15, 1862-7.40 p.m. (Received June 16,12.30 p.m.)

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

Another rain set in about 3 p.m. to-day and has continued up to the present time. This will retard our movements somewhat, as a little rain causes the ground in this section to become soft and boggy, rendering it impossible to move artillery except directly in the traveled roads. In this arm especially consists our great superiority over the enemy, and as we will have to cut out several roads through new ground for the army to advance, then it is absolutely necessary that we should have some few days of dry weather to make the ground firm enough to