an order to proceed without delay to Winchester, Va., and to assume command of the Department of West Virginia, and the Middle Military Division, temporarily (relieving Major-General Sheridan), under the assignment of the President of the Unites States. I left Washington the same day, and arrived at Winchester about 2 a. m. on the following morning, when I relieved Major-General Sheridan, who moved out that morning with the cavalry forces under his command toward Staunton, Va.

The Middle Division then embraced the Army of the Shenandoah; the Department of Washington, Major-General Augur commanding; the Department of Maryland [Middle Department] commanded by Major General lewis Wallace; the Department of Pennsylvania, Major-General Cadwalader commanding; and the Department of West Virginia, of which last Major-General Sheridan had exercised the command after the capture of Major-General Crook.

My headquarters were established at Winchester, as the point where I could most readily and promptly obtain information of the movements of the enemy; but Winchester being without the limits of West Virginia, I received to remove the headquarters of that department to Cumberland, Md., and in view of such change sought and obtained the permission of the War Department to assign Brigadier General S. C. Carroll, U. S. Volunteers, on his supposed rank of brevet major general, to the command thereof; but was notified a few days afterward that General Carroll had not received the brevet of major-general, and with great regret i was obliged to relieve this gallant officer.

Major-General Emory was then directed by me to assume command of that department, with his headquarters at Cumberland, Md. General Carroll was assigned to the command of a district extending from Sleepy Creek to Clarksburg, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; Brigadier-General Lightburn, U. S. Volunteers, commanded the First Separate Brigade, stationed along the railroad from Clarksburg to Parkersburg; the post of Wheeling was also under his command. Brigadier General J. D. Stevenson commanded a district extending from the Monocacy to Sleepy Creek, including Harper's Ferry; Brigadier-General Seward commanding the post at Martinsburg, Va., Brigadier-Generals hayes and Duval commanding provisional brigades, west of Cumberland, stationed along the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Parkersburg branch of that line.

Two regiments of troops, the men principally mounted, were stationed in the Kanawha Valley, under the command of Colonel Oley. Brevet Major-General Torbert, U. S. Volunteers, commanded the cavalry in the Valley which had been left three by General Sheridan when I succeeded him in the command. Brigadier-General Sullivan and Max Weber were under my command at Frederick City. They wee unassigned.

Upon my arrival at Winchester I immediately began preparations to concentrate as large a force as possible at that point, and collecting supplies and transportation, preparatory to a movement against the enemy down the Valley.

I found that by the reports there were about 60,000 men for duty in the division, including twelve new regiments from Ohio, Indiana, New York, and Pennsylvania, which had been ordered to report to me. A camp of organization was established at Halltown, about four miles from Harper's Ferry, composed of two divisions of infantry, one of which was commanded by Bvt. Major General John R. Brooke, U. s. Volunteers, the other by Bvt. Major General Thomas W. Egan, U. S. Volunteers.