detailed. Nine officers were thus detailed in all; the first one on the 3rd of April, the last on the 25th. They reported as follows: April 5, 1; 14th, 1; 15th, 3; 17th, 2; 21st, 1; 25th, 1; total, 9. Immediately on reporting the obligation to secrecy was taken by each officer and he was furnished with the code and his instruction commenced. On my arrival in the department I inspected the detachment, and found it to consist of 4 officers and 14 enlisted men, and in addition, 30 enlisted men accompanied me from Washington. On the 22nd of April 54 enlisted men arrived from the Signal Camp of Instruction at Georgetown, D. C., and on the 23d, 63 enlisted men arrived from the Department of the Susquehanna. There were also 8 men detailed for temporary duty from the Fourteenth Regiment Pennsylvania Cavalry. Thus the aggregate force consisted of 13 officers and 169 enlisted men.

When I was ordered to take the field with my [command], aside from the 4 whom I found there, the officers had had study as follows: One twenty-three days, 1 fourteen days, 3 thirteen days, 2 eleven days, 1 eight days, 1 three days.

The enlisted men may be classified as follows: Experienced men, 14; together with those from Signal Camp of Instruction who accompanied me, 30, making 44 well taught. Recruits from Signal Camp of Instruction, 54, indifferently taught; recruits from the Department of the Susquehanna, 63; untaught; temporary detail, Fourteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, 8, untaught; total, 169. There were about 80 men about 80 men mounted and armed; the others were not mounted for want of horses, and not armed by reason of the inability of the Ordnance Department to fill my requisition for arms. Thus it will be seen that I had in my party 5 officers and 44 enlisted men capable of doing efficient signal duty; the others had to be taught, and even many of them equipped, during the exigencies of an active campaign. I represented to General Sigel, how insufficiently the officers and men were instructed, and provided, and urged the propriety, rather, I thought, necessity, that all not ready for efficient signal duty should be left in camp to complete their instruction and equipment, that they might not disappoint his expectation of them, but he decided that they were needed in the field, and directed me to take them as they were, and do the best I could with them.

The following is an outline of the campaign in West Virginia in 1864, in which this detachment participated: The Shenandoah column, under Sullivan, and the West Virginia column, under Crook, were to meet at Staunton, and proceed thence together toward Lynchburg, all under command of Sigel, who would move to Staunton with Sullivan's column. With this view the troops of Sullivan's column concentrated at Martinsburg, W. Va., toward the end of April, where Sigel joined them, and on the 30th of April the march commenced. The command moved slowly, halting at Winchester till the 9th of May; from the 9th to the 11th, at Cedar Creek; from the 11th to the 15th, at Woodstock, when we marched to New Market, where, after a severe action, we were repulsed and fell back to Cedar Creek, arriving there on the afternoon of the 16th, and remained there (General Sigel being relieved by General Hunter on the 21st) till the 26th, when the march recommenced under Hunter. We proceed to Harrisonburg, thence to Port Republic, thence to Piedmont, where June 5, we met and defeated the enemy, and June 6 entered Staunton, where, on the 8th, we were