four hours preceding 12 o'clock of last night. No movement reported by them, except the above rumor by the sergeant Eleventh North Carolina of the departure of Rodes and Gordon.

GEO. G. MEADE,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, March 2, 1865-11.30 a. m.

Lieutenant-General GRANT:

I have sent you a dispatch, from which you will perceive the reported departure of two of Lee's divisions is not only not confirmed, but is by no means reliable. Nevertheless I have directed the chief engineer to visit the proposed points of attack and confer with Generals Potter and McLaughlen, and shall make any preliminary arrangement to attack, in case your orders should require it or my judgment justify my recommending it. This judgment will be based on the facts reported by the chief engineer, which I will lay before you as soon as received. I am of the opinion I have enough under my command at present, as the question is not so much one of numbers as of the practicability of carrying entrenched lines. These once carried and overcome, I have men enough to meet the whole of Lee's army.

GEO. G. MEADE,
Major-General.

CITY POINT, March 2, 1865-12.30 p. m.

Major-General MEADE:

If the report of the departure of two divisions of Lee's army can be verified we will try the assault on front of each Potter's and Willcox's divisions. I can bring over 15,000 men from north of the James to support them if necessary.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, March 2, 1865-9 p. m.

Lieutenant-General GRANT:

I forward report just received from provost-marshal's department of examination of deserters to-day:

OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL, March 2, 1865.

Colonel G. D. RUGGLES, Assistant Adjutant-General:

I have the honor to state that thirty-six rebel deserters were forwarded to this office to-day, bringing in with them the following property: fifteen muskets. The men were representatives of the following brigades: MacRae's, Weisiger's, Scales', Sorrel's, Davis', McComb's, and Wise's. One informant states that he was in the camps of Rodes' division on Sunday evening last, and that the troops of that division were still there, near Sutherland's Station. Another informant states that he witnessed the shipment of fifteen guns at the South Side Railroad station, and he was told they were to be taken to Danville. The men all state that there has been no change in their camps; also that men are constantly leaving their camps and going home.

PH. SCHUYLER,
Captain, Fourteenth Infantry, in Charge.

GEO. G. MEADE,

Major-General.

50 R R-VOL XLVI, PT II