[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS MIDDLE MILITARY DIVISION,
February 25, 1865.

Respectfully forwarded to Major General H. W. Halleck, Chief of Staff, for his information.

There is no doubt that this scout was badly managed by all concerned and is being investigated, but I am of opinion that the larger majority of men reported captured will reach our lines, so many having done so already.

P. H. SHERIDAN,

Major-General, U. S. Army, Commanding.

Numbers 2. Report of Major Thomas Gibson, Fourteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, commanding expedition.

HEADQUARTERS FOURTEENTH PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY,
February 20, 1865.

MAJOR: I have the honor to report that, agreeable to directions from the brigadier-general commanding, I left the camp at 6 p. m. for the purpose of crossing the Blue Ridge and making arrests and seizures of certain enemies and public property of the enemy, agreeable to information received from two deserters from Mosby's command. I had with me 125 men and three officers of the Fourteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and 100 men of the Twenty-first New York Cavalry, under command of Captain Snow, of the same regiment. There were 150 men detailed from the Fourteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry; six of the number were not furnished in time, twenty were directed to return to camp by the assistant inspector-general of the brigade because of the non efficiency of their horses. This reduced the number furnished by that regiment to 124 men, and making the total of troops engaged 224 enlisted men.

About 11 p. m. I crossed the Shenandoah River at Shepherd's Ford. The expedition was accompanied by Captain Martindale and Lieutenant Baker, both of the staff of the major-general commanding Cavalry Corps. Captain Martindale was accompanied by six scouts. Lieutenant Draper, of the Twenty-first New York Cavalry, was detailed to accompany the expedition in charge of all the scouts; four enlisted men of the Twenty-first New York Cavalry were detailed as scouts and ordered to report to Lieutenant Draper.

Before starting from camp, having crossed the Shenandoah River, I ordered that when the command had reached Paris that all the scouts accompanying the command, except two, should report to Lieutenant Draper; that Captain Snow, with Twenty-first New York, and one of the deserters from Mosby, should move in the direction of Upperville. Agreeable to the instructions of the brigadier-general commanding, I directed that Captain Snow should give due consideration to all information and suggestions tendered by Lieutenant Draper, with regard to roads, & c.; that Lieutenant Draper should be governed to such an extent as he should deem proper by the information received from the deserter who accompanied him; that Lieutenant Draper and Captain Snow, with that portion of the command, should be at Upperville one hour before daybreak of the 19th.