JONES'S LANDING, January 24, 1865.

Lieutenant-General GRANT:

Dispatch received. I am on my way to engage the rebel rams.

WM. A. PARKER,

Captain, Commanding Onondaga.

CITY POINT, VA., January 24, 1865.

Captain PARKER,

Commanding Naval Flotilla, James River:

Please inform me what vessels you have at the front. At this junction of affairs all the vessels you can control should be got immediately to the front, or, at least, above the large amount of public stores accumulated for the subsistence of the Army and Navy. The delay of the last few days in preparing for a visit from the enemy, which I found on my return to this place yesterday had been expected, was providentially prevented from proving fatal to us. It would be better to obstruct the channel of the river with sunken gun-boats than that a rebel ram should reach City Point.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

AIKEN'S LANDING, January 24, 1865.

Lieutenant-General GRANT, Commanding Armies of the United States:

Your dispatch of the 24th just received. The names of the vessels at the front are as follows: Onondaga, Massasoit, and Hunchback, below Dutch Gap; Commodore Morris, at Turkey Ben; Eutaw, at Deep Bottom; Daylight, New Market road; Miami, City Point; General Utnam and Commodore Barney, at the Appomattox River. Several other are at the Norfolk Navy-Yard undergoing repairs, and expected to return in a few days. I will endeavor to get still more vessels to the front, as you request.

WM. A. PARKER,

Commanding Fifth Division, North Atlantic Squadron.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE JAMES,
January 24, 1865.(Received 10.15 a. m. 25th.)

Lieutenant-General GRANT:

I have to report that I have been relieved from the command of the James River Division. I will be at City Point to-morrow morning.

WM. A. PARKER,

Commander.

CITY POINT, VA., January 24, 1865.

SPECIAL ORDERS TO GUN-BOAT COMMANDERS.]

All gun-boats now in the James River above City Point will immediately proceed to the front above the pontoon bridge, near Virginia Landing. This order is imperative, the orders of any naval commanders to the contrary notwithstanding.

By authority of the Secretary of the Navy:

U. S. GRANT,
Lieutenant-General.

15 R R-VOL XLV, PT II