that I think you went to the Sunny South in good time. I would be glad to receive a telegram from you dated at Richmond before your return. Compliments to Mrs. Lincoln.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

CITY POINT, March 24, 1865-9 p.m. (Received 10.55 p. m.)

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

The President desires me to say he has just arrived at this point safely, and both he and family are well, having entirely recovered from their indispositions of this morning.

C. B. PENROSE,

Captain and Commissary of Subsistence of Volunteers.

CITY POINT, VA., Much 24, 1865-12 m.

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

Washington:

I have no present purpose of making a campaign with the forces in the Middle Department, but want them in the best possible condition for either offensive or defensive operations. If Lee should retreat south the surplus force under Hancock could be transferred to another field. If he should go to Lynchburg they will be required where they are. The Nineteenth Corps ought to be discontinued, or else all the new troops coming into the field added to it. We want here all the cavalry horses that can be delivered between now and next Wednesday. Direct all the cavalry horses to be sent to Canby that can be . His cavalry ought, however, to remount itself in the country where it is operating. Canby should be supplied from the West and by the Mississippi River.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

[MARCH 24, 1865.-For Grant's instructions to Meade, Ord, and Sheridan, for a general movement of the armies operating against Richmond, see Part I, p. 50.]

HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY CORPS, March 24, 1865-10.20 a. m.

Captain C. L. DAVIS,
Chief Signal Officer, Army of the Potomac:

Richmond Whig of yesterday states the heavy firing in front of Petersburg on Monday last was occasioned by an effort to destroy the Yankee observatory on the Avery house, about one miles and a half distant.

J. C. PAINE,

Brevet Major.

7 R R-VOL XLVI, PT III