[Indorsement.]

GENERAL: By my dispatch just sent you will see that General Ferrero has been instructed in regard to the matter referred to within, and on the receipt of this I have seen General Ferrero personally and repeated the instructions. There is no doubt, I think, that General F. will heartily co-operate with you and adopt any suggestion you may make.

Respectfully,

H. G. WRIGHT,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS ENGINEER BRIGADE,
Camp at Fort Powhatan, June 16, 1864.

Captain C. CLAPP,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

SIR: As soon as practicable after receipt of this you will direct Major Ketchum, with the companies of Captain Slosson and Dibbell, to get ready, with one wagon to each company and their indispensable property, to come up to join us at this place, or, if we have left, at City Point. Five days' rations and the private horses of the officers will be brought along. Captain Hull will call upon the quartermaster's department for necessary transportation, to be furnished at the earliest practicable moment. The brigade staff, band, guard, &c., will also come up, with one wagon, a horse for each officer, and four extra horses for orderlies. Lieutenant O'Keefe, with his company, will remain in charge of the barges and other property left there, for whose safety he will be held responsible, being at liberty, if deemed necessary for such safety in storms, to remove them to Hampton Creek and to change his camp to the shore adjacent to them if he deems best, while he at the same time has the general charge of the teams and trains left at the stables. The assistant surgeon will remain with such men as are not fit to come forward. The tents, according to the recent orders, only will be brought. It is expected that the command will move in some four or five hours after this is received, if the necessary steamer is available.

H. W. BENHAM,

Brigadier-General.

Captain Hull will bring us his spring wagon also, as well as the headquarters wagon, and their teams.

H. W. BENHAM,

Brigadier-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES,
Petersburg, June 16, 1864-10.30 a.m.

Major-General HANCOCK,

Commanding Second Army Corps:

GENERAL: Push the reconnaissance in your front carefully to ascertain if an advance can be made, and at what points best. At about 6 p.m to-day make all preparation for such an advance, but do not make it without further orders. This is not to be understood, however, as an order preventing you from taking advantage of any weakness shown by the enemy. General Burnside has been directed to mass his troops