[Third indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS SECOND CORPS, June 28, 1864.

Respectfully referred to Major Angel, who will please state at what hour he delivered the order herein referred to as marked B (dated 12.25 a. m. June 16), to General Gibbon.

By command of Major-General Hancock:

FRANCIS A. WALKER,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Fourth indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS SECOND CORPS, June 29, 1864.

These papers are respectfully returned to Major-General Gibbon with certain indorsements, after the perusal of which General Gibbon will please return them to this office.

The order sent by signal telegraph at Wind-Mill Point on the morning of the 15th for General Gibbon to proceed, following General Birney, was dated at 9.15 a. m. was sent direct to General Gibbon's headquarters, when the telegraph signal station was there established. A copy of this order is on file in this office, received from the signal officer. General Gibbon appears to have forgotten of mislaid another communication sent to him early on the morning of the 16th, calling upon him for a report as to what he had done toward carrying out the order of 12.25 of the same date.

General Gibbon's letter of June 28 seems to imply that if he had not fully carried out the instructions of the note of 12.25 a. m. of the 16th that he should have been called to an account for it at the time, that is, that Major-General Hancock was satisfied with what had been done that night, but such a view of the case is not in consonance with General Hancock's note of the morning of the 16th, calling upon General Gibbon to state what he had accomplished that night, nor with the conversation between General Meade, General Hancock, General Birney, and General Gibbon on the afternoon of the 16th, at which interview General Hancock insisted that his order of 12.25 a. m., which was shown to General Meade at that time, was not fully carried out.

General Gibbon's pickets were scarcely beyond pistol-range from the line occupied by his troops on the morning of the 16th, when General Hancock visited his lines. On the night of the 17th instant General Hancock transferred the command of the corps, which he resumed on the 27th instant. The object of the circular of the 26th instant, written when General Hancock was off duty, was to collect all the facts, papers, &c., relating to this subject before they should be forgotten or

41 R R-VOL XL, PT II