alacrity, and the enemy's escape from the punishment due his temerity is entirely owing to fortuitous circumstances and the great difficulty of concentrating troops and combining movements from positions so distant and in a country whose topography is so difficult and intricate.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

B. F. KELLEY,

Brigadier-General.

Brigadier General GEORGE W. CULLUM,

Chief of Staff, Washington, D. C.

Numbers 2. Report of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Fitz Simmons, Third New York Cavalry, commanding cavalry, First Division.

HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY FORCES, FIRST DIVISION,
Charlestown, Va. February 7, 1864.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to report in pursuance of orders I moved from this place on the 31st of January with the following force, viz: First New York, Major Quinn commanding, 230 men; Twenty-first New York, Major Otis commanding, 375 men; Fifteenth New York, Major Hyde commanding, 400 men; Cole's (Maryland) cavalry, and detachments of the Second Maryland, Sixth Michigan, and First Connecticut Cavalry, Major Cole commanding, 225 men; one section of artillery, Lieutenant Hoffman. I arrived at Winchester at 8 p. m. and bivouacked, 3 miles west, on the Romney road. At 10 p. m. Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson and 500 mounted infantry, with four guns, passed through Winchester toward Strasburg, he having orders to join me at or near Wardensville.

The next day I received orders in the morning from General Sullivan to call in all detachments and move toward Romney direct. I sent Lieutenant Rivers and 12 men of Cole's battalion to intercept Colonel Thompson and inform him I had received intelligence that the enemy was in Romney on the night of the 31st, and moving toward Green Spring Run. Upon the arrival of my wagon train I moved to Romney, stopping at Cacapon Bridge to allow my column to close up and to feed, leaving my train at Blue's Gap, in charge of Major Hyde and all but one squadron of the Fifteenth, which I took with me. Upon my arrival in Romney Lieutenant Wyckoff, of the First New York, who had charge of the advance platoon, dashed forward and captured Lieutenant Allen, and 2 men of the Seventh Virginia, from whom I learned that the enemy were in force and moving toward Frankfort, on the west side of South Branch Mountain. I sent Captain Firey, with his company of Cole's battalion, to Springfield to ascertain, if possible, where the enemy was,and in which direction he was moving.

In the mean time I ordered Lieutenant Wyckoff with 10 men of the First New York to reconnoiter the gap, the result of which was to bring on a spirited skirmish. I at once supported Lieutenant Wyckoff with Cole's battalion and Captain Hicks' squadron of the Fifteenth. They drove the enemy through the gap, against great odds of position, killing 1 captain and 1 man and wounding Lieutenant Summers and 2 men, and capturing 2 men, all of the Seventh Vir-

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