troops were put into one division and General Greene assigned to the command, whilst all the remaining troops of the District of Beaufort, not left with General Palmer, were assigned to General Carter. Goldsborough was entered without serious opposition on the 21st of March, and in two days thereafter the concentration of the grand army was effected there. The Provisional Corps was broken up, the convalescents, &c., sent to their regiments, and on the 31st I assumed permanent command of the Twenty-third Corps under orders of the President. *

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. D. COX,

Major-General, Commanding.

Lieutenant Colonel J. A. CAMPBELL,

Asst. Adjt. General, Dept. of North Carolina, Army of the Ohio.

No. 259. Report of Brigadier General Innis N. Palmer, U. S. Army, commanding First Division, District of Beaufort, of operations March 1 - 10.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF BEAUFORT, New Berne, N. C., March 28, 1865.

MAJOR: I have the honor to submit herewith my report of the operations of the First Division, District of Beaufort, under my command from the organization of the division on the 1st day of March up to and including the battle of Kinston:

My division was organized into three brigades, commanded, respectively, by Brigadier General E. Harland, U. S. Volunteers, Colonel P. J. Claassen, One hundred and thirty-second New York Volunteers, and Colonel Horace Boughton, One hundred and forty-third New York Volunteers. General Orders, No. 1, from headquarters of my division, a copy of which is appended, gives in detail the organization of the brigades. In addition to the troops therein mentioned a small battalion of the Twelfth New York Cavalry, commanded by Major Floyd Clarkson, of that regiment, and Captain Graham's cavalry company and mountain howitzer section of the First North Carolina Union Volunteers, were attached to my command and were engaged a greater part of the time in operating in all directions from my front. I may mention here that the Eighty-fifth New York Volunteers (a remnant of a regiment), announced in the order as belonging to General Harland's brigade, never joined this command, but were verbally assigned by the Major-general commanding to the division of General Carter.

As soon as the organization of the division was completed at New Berne, Colonel Claassen, commanding the line of outposts at Batchelder's Creek, was telegraphed on the evening of the 1st of March to at once move forward his command to the front and occupy the crossing of the railroad at Core Creek. This order was promptly executed by noon of the following day. Shortly after the remaining troops of the brigade assigned to him, including the 3-inch battery, were upon the ground.

On the morning of the 3rd instant the brigade of General Harland took up the line of march to Core Creek, but owing to the heavy condition

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*For sketch of country from New Berne to Kinston, N. C., accompanying this report, see Plate CV, Map 5 of the Atlas.

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