Plymouth Wednesday last. You will remember that you have cut communication between Weldon and Petersburg. Everything is off in the best time possible.

B. F. BUTLER,

Major-General.

ADDENDA.

HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES,
City Point, January 15, 1865.

Lieutenant Colonel C. B. COMSTOCK,

Aide-de-Camp:

COLONEL: You will forward by Captain Robinett, aide-de-camp, the statements of Lieutenant George W. Ross, and the other officers and men made to you (and which you read to the lieutenant-general), concerning the condition of Fort Fisher during the attack on it, on the 25th day of December, 1864. In the event you have not these statements with you, or that they are where they cannot be got at, you will please procure the statements anew and send them, together with any similar information you may be able to obtain. Captain Robinett will return as soon as you deliver to him such dispatches on this subject as you may have to forward.

By command:

JNO. A. RAWLINS,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES,
Fort Fisher, January 17, 1865.

General J. A. RAWLINS,

Chief of Staff:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of January 15, 1865, directing the return of the statements of certain officers and soldiers in reference to Fort Fisher. The papers are returned herewith by Captain Robinett.

Very respectfully,

C. B. COMSTOCK,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Aide-de-Camp, Bvt. Brigadier-General.

Second Lieutenant George Simpson, One hundred and forty-second New York Volunteers, acting aide-de-camp, on the staff of Brevet Brigadier-General Curtis, says:

Was on the skirmish line in front of Fort Fisher. Fort Fisher has a bastioned front on the seashore; a straight curtain extends nearly down to the river from the northeast bastion of the works. Captured a mule within fifteen of twenty paces of the work. Left of the curtain from the northwest bastion of the work nearly to Cape Fear River was a line of works, with abatis in front except across the road; don't know how far the abatis extended. There was a ditch on the land front of the work. The ditch I think was about twelve feet wide and about six or seven feet deep. Did not notice a glaces. The scarf and counterscarf were not very steep. They had a slope of about 45 degrees. Don't know whether the ditch was revetted. The relief of the work was from six to eight feet high. The profile of the work is such that I think I could run over it. From the end of the land curtain to the river was