will, if they desire it, be given employment in the quartermaster and other departments of the army, and the same remuneration paid them as is given to civilian employes for similar services. Forced military duty or service endangering them to capture by the Confederate forces will not be exacted from such as give themselves up to the U. S. military authorities.

* * * * * * *

By command of Lieutenant-General Grant:

T. S. BOWERS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
August 28, 1864 - 11 a. m.

Lieutenant-General GRANT,

Fortress Monroe:

I have nothing particular to report this morning. There was a little more brisk firing that usual about 3 a. m., apparently on the lines of Mott and Birney. As no report has been received of it is presumed to have been without consequence. A flag of truce sent in to Reams' Station yesterday by General Gregg, proposing to send a working party to bury our dead, was declined by General Wade Hampton on the ground that his people were engaged in burying our dead, estimated at 200 in number, and that our wounded had all been removed. A congratulatory order of General Lee in yesterday's Petersburg paper claims 9 guns, 7 colors, and 2,000 prisoners as the result of the battle at Reams'.

GEO. G. MEADE,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
August 28, 1864.

Major-General HUMPHREYS,

Chief of Staff:

GENERAL: On examination of deserters from the enemy this morning I find that Fry's and Davis' brigades, of Heth's division, and Harris', Wright's, and Finegan's, of Mahone's division, still retain their old position in the trenches. The general supposition is that the balance of the two named division are lying in reserve inside the enemy's works. I cannot locate Wilcox's division, but deserters all say that all the troops which fought the Fifth [Second] Corps at Reams' Station returned to within the trenches, or enemy's line, around Petersburg.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. MCENTEE,

Captain, & c.

HEADQUARTERS,

August 28, 1864 - 7.35 p. m. (Received 7.45 p. m.)

Colonel SHARPE,

City Point:

One deserter from Twenty-fifth Virginia Battalion, an organization raised for local defense in Richmond, now temporarily attached to Benning's brigade, came in to-day at Deep Bottom; brings no news. A