HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-FIFTH ARMY CORPS, April 16, 1865.

Major General E. O. C. ORD,
Commanding Department of Virginia, Richmond, Va.:

I have received your dispatch of to-day. My headquarters are at Poplar Grove Church. I have no telegraphic communications yet. I am on the line of the military road and have the best positions, form all I can learn and see, there is on it, but the whole country here has been one large battle-field and camp, and the stench and offal is so great that if my command is kept anywhere near here the consequences will be very serious. I have just discovered a fine camp-ground on the South Side Railroad, about four miles west of Petersburg, near A. Chandler's house. It has never been used as a camp. Wood is plenty and water good, and communications for supplies and by telegraph easy. Here, besides the stench, the water is bad. I can get no communication by rail with City Point, as the superintendent says he has no rolling-stock for me, the Army of the Potomac needing everything. The consequence is that I will have to haul my supplies by wagons four miles over bad roads. At that place on the South Side road I will be in just as favorable position to move south as here. Do you authorize me to shift my camp there?

G. WEITZEL,

Major-General, Commanding.

BROADWAY LANDING, VA., April 16, 1865.

Lieutenant W. R. KING,

Chief Engineer, Dept. of Virginia and North Carolina, Headquarters General Ord, Richmond:

There is a long time of rebel batteries not closed at the gorge and entirely indefensible from the rear, which extends from the fort at Drewry's Bluff to the Howlett House Battery. The guns are very heavy, and not easily moved in a hurry. Is it the intention of General Ord to continue the removal of these, or to stop the removal of all the water-bearing guns? General Weitzel has directed the early removal of them, as endangering the navigation of the river in case of a reverse.

I hope the pontoon bridge here may remain as I requested by telegram last night.

HENRY L. ABBOT,

Brevet Brigadier-General of Volunteers, Commanding Siege Artillery.

HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES, Petersburg, Va., April 16, 1865.

COMMANDING OFFICER FIFTH MASSACHUSETTS CAVALRY:

SIR: Break up your camp at Sutherland's Station, and march your regiment in the direction of this city until you shall have cleared the station with the rear of your command, including wagons, by half a mile, and then await further orders from these headquarters. Have your command well closed and ready to move instantly in any direction, with every man, mounted and dismounted, and every wagon and animal that pertains to it. Take with you two days' rations. Be ready in the manner prescribed at 12 m. to-morrow.

By order of Major-General Hartsuff:

J. M. HOWARD,
Assistant Adjutant-General.