taken. The transportation now with the regiments will be turned over to Captain Peirce, assistant quartermaster, at his depot near these headquarters.

Please cause General Ruger to be informed that the Fourth and One hundred and twenty-sixth Ohio, Fifth Michigan, and Fourteenth Indiana Regiments are ordered to report to him at Alexandria. General Ruger, on arriving at Alexandria, will report by telegraph to the General-in-Chief for further instructions, and also by telegraph to the Quartermaster-General.

All men belonging to the regiments on daily or detached duty in the corps will accompany them. You are desired to report as soon as possible the number of officers and men for whom transportation will be required, and also when the command will probably reach Rappahannock Station.

Please acknowledge.

S. WILLIAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Numbers 219.
August 15, 1863.

* * * * * *

IV. The commanding general has learned that the views of numerous officers and soldiers are now with this army. In view of the service the troops may at any moment be called upon to perform, the commanding general considers that the attention of the officers and men should be solely occupied with their public duties, and that the presence of their families is incompatible with the complete discharge of the same.

It is therefore directed that all families now with the army, other than those who as nurses or attached to the Sanitary Commission have special authority from the War Department or these headquarters to visit and remain with it, be forthwith removed beyond its lines. The commanding general regrets that it has become his unpleasant duty to issue order of this character, but he trust that its property will be recognized, and that it will not be necessary for him to recur to the subject.

By command of Major-General Meade:

S. WILLIAMS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY CORPS, Numbers 122.
August 16, 1863.

I. The Third (Reserve) Brigade of the First Division of this corps will turn over their horses, arms, and equipments to the respective staff officers of that division and proceed to Alexandria under the orders of Brigadier-General Merritt, who will report in person to Major-General Stoneman, Chief of Cavalry Bureau, Washington,for the purpose of being placed in depot to be filled up and remounted.

II. The commanding general of the First Cavalry division will use the equipments, horses,and arms of the Third Brigade to mount