SPECIAL ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

Numbers 259. September 26, 1864.

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2. Brigadier General T. W. Egan, Volunteer service, is assigned to duty with the Second Army Corps, and will report to Major-General Hancock, commanding that corps, for further instructions.

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10. Lieutenant Colonel J. S. Smith, chief commissary Second Army Corps, will in addition to his present duties discharge the duties of chief commissary of this army during the temporary absence of Lieutenant Colonel T. Willson.

11. As the branch railroad from Cedar, Level to the Weldon railroad is now completed and open for travel, it will be taken charge of by the provost-marshal-general of this army under the rules and regulations heretofore existing in like cases. Corps and other independent commanders are authorized to grant passes to officers and enlisted men of their command to visit City Point or other places on the road on necessary, or when in their judgment permission may properly be granted, but no officer or enlisted man will be allowed to travel ont he road without such pass. the provost-marshal-general will see that all persons visiting City Point without due authority are arrested.

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By command of Major-General Meade:

S. WILLIAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS ENGINEER BRIGADE,
Camp at City Point, Va., September 26, 1864.

Captain E. P. DEACON,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General:

The commanding general directs me to refer the inclosed communications to you, which are to be returned, for a report of the reasons upon which you informed him,while on a visit to your camp on Saturday afternoon, that "our cavalry, for the last two or three nights, had come in to within one mile and a half of our (the infantry's) front on Bailey's Creek, because the rebels were too strong for them at the post of Sycamore Church." As General Benham had deemed it his duty to report this and seek the earliest information at General Grant's headquarters, as nearest at hand, to enable him to act promptly if any emergency existed, the inclosed letters in relation to the matter have been received by him which it is necessary that the should reply to promptly.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHANNING CLAPP,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[First indorsement.]

HDQRS. SECOND Brigadier, SECOND DIV., 18TH ARMY CORPS,
In the Field Va., September 26, 1864.

Respectfully referred to Captain Hicks, One hundred and forty-eighth New York Volunteers, commanding infantry outpost, from whom the information was derived which I communicated to Brigadier-General Benham.

E. P. DEACON,

Captain and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.