HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE JAMES,
September 19, 1864-10.05 a.m.

Brigadier-General SHEPLEY,

Norfolk, Va.:

I have ordered one company of the New York Mounted Rifles to report to you at Williamsburg. I have also ordered the remains of the Wisconsin regiment, about 100 men, to report to you for duty to relieve the Twenty-seventh Massachusetts as jail guards, the men of which will be ordered to join their regiments. I would not at present relieve the negro troops. The question of our right to employ negro troops as a provost guard in the city of Norfolk must be fully settled by perfect quiet before we can consent to relieve them.

BENJ. F. BUTLER,

Major-General.

SEPTEMBER 19, 1864 (Received 9.55 p.m.)

General SHEPLEY,

Norfolk, Va.:

The enemy's cavalry is reported in force on the Blackwater. Keep a sharp lookout, as it is barely possible they may make a dash toward Portsmouth.

GEO. A. KENSEL,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Acting Chief of Staff.

NORFOLK, VA., September 19, 1864.

Brigadier-General VOGDES,

Commanding Defenses, &c., Portsmouth, Va.:

GENERAL: The enemy's cavalry is reported in force on the Blackwater. Keep a sharp lookout, as they [may] make a dash upon your lines.

By order of Brigadier-General Shepley:

WICKHAM HOFFMAN,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

WASHINGTON, D. C., September 20, 1864

Lieutenant-General GRANT,

City Point:

You recollect the answer you wrote to the letter of the President I took to you at Culpeper. The copperheads charge that the President has interfered with your arrangements, but that correspondence completely contradicts the charge, and the publication would justify both you and the President. Have you any objection to its publication? Please answer by telegraph.

E. B. WASHBURNE.

CITY POINT, VA., September 20, 1864-11 p.m.

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

Washington, D. C.,:

The Richmond Sentinel of to-day has the following:

A slight ripple of excitement was produced here yesterday by the report that a Yankee raiding party was advancing on Gordonsville, and were within a few miles