HDQRS. ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, SIGNAL DEPARTMENT,
August 29, 1864.

Major-General HUMPHREYS,

Chief of Staff:

GENERAL: I have the honor to forward the following report just received from the station near the Gibbon house:

AUGUST 29 - 2.10 p. m.

Two pieces of light artillery have just moved from Petersburg toward the enemy's works in front of Cemetery Hill.

JORDAN,

Sergeant.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. S. STRYKER,

Acting Chief Signal Officer.

SPECIAL ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

No. 233.
August 29, 1864.

* * * * * * *

6. The Artillery Brigade of the Ninth Corps will be constituted as follows, Lieutenant Colonel J. A. Monroe, First Rhode Island Artillery, commanding: Roemer's battery, Thirty-fourth New York, four 3-inch guns; Durell's battery (Pennsylvania), six 3-inch guns; Jones' battery, Eleventh Massachusetts, four 3-inch guns; Eaton's battery, Twenty-seventh New York, four Napoleons: Twitchell's battery, Seventh Maine, four Napoleons; Rogers' battery, Nineteenth New York, four Napoleons. The following-named batteries, now in the Ninth Corps, are transferred to the Artillery Reserve, and will report to Brigadier-General Hunt, chief of artillery, Army of the Potomac, who will give the necessary instructions for the organization of the artillery park of the corps, and for the transfer of the surplus material to the artillery park of the army: Start's, Third Vermont, four 3-inch guns; Thomas', Second Maine, four 3-inch guns; Mayo's, Third Maine, four 3-inch guns; Wright's, Fourteenth Massachusetts, four 3-inch guns.

* * * * * * *

10. The attention of corps and other independent commanders is called to the large number of officers and men on special, extra, or daily duty, and on detached service within this army. According to the last reports over 1,000 officers and 21,000 enlisted men are so employed; numbers considered by the commanding general altogether disproportionate to the present strength of the army, and he calls upon corps and independent commanders to institute rigid inspections for the purpose of ascertaining whether many of the officers and men now on special service cannot be returned to duty. It is supposed that, as a general thing, the existing details for detached service were made prior to the commencement of the campaign, and now that the army is so much reduced in its effective strength the commanding general is of the opinion that the details for special service should be reduced proportionately, and he trusts that it is only necessary to direct attention to the subject to secure the return to duty of all officers and men whose service on detached duty can possibly be dispensed with.

* * * * * * *

By command of Major-General Meade:

S. WILLIAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.