with at least two divisions disencumbered. I think you might let Mower leave a small brigade, and bring up his other two and battery. Leave with the train with you as small a guard as will be effective against a brigade of cavalry and come with the balance. The officer you sent me to-day will know the route. Please start at 3 a. m. to-morrow.

Respectfully,

O. O. HOWARD,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS SEVENTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Smith's Chapel, N. C., March 19, 1865-9. 30 p. m.

Captain A. M. VAN DYKE,

Asst. Adjt. General, Department and Army of the Tennessee:

CAPTAIN: Information has just been received, through the Thirteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, that General Terry reached Faison's this afternoon on a train; that his command was back and would encamp about five miles below that point to-night. I have sent General Terry copies of General Howard's orders to me and have forwarded the dispatches for General Schofield by a detachment of the Thirteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry through General Terry.

Very respectfully,

FRANK P. BLAIR, JR.,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS SEVENTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Smith's Chapel, N. C., March 19, 1865.

COMMANDING OFFICER THIRTEENTH PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY:

COLONEL: I am directed by General Blair to send you the inclosed dispatch* for General Schofield, with the request that you will proceed with it if practicable to Kinston, where General Schofield now is. Nothing has been heard from General Terry as yet. Should anything be head to-night I will inform you of it. The cannonading heard to-day was in front of the Fourteenth Corps. They were opposed by cavalry with four pieces of artillery. The fighting is not supposed to have been severe. Our left division will move to Everettsville to-morrow and the two divisions encamped here to Mount Olive. The dispatch may be an important one and we have no cavalry with which to send it, so that the general is obliged to call on you.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. CADLE, JR.,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS SEVENTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Smith's Chapel, N. C., March 19, 1865.

COMMANDING OFFICER THIRTEENTH PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY:

SIR: The inclosed dispatch + has just been received from army headquarters, and General Blair has been directed by General Sherman to send it to General Schofield by some "careful, trustworthy person. " Either this dispatch or the one sent you for General S. this evening is evidently of great importance. This one is probably a cipher dispatch.

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* See Sherman to Schofield, 2 p. m., p. 910.

+ See Sherman to Schofield, 5 p. m., p. 910.

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