HEADQUARTERS SECOND ARMY CORPS, September 27, 1864-7.45 a.m.

Lieutenant-Colonel MORGAN,
Chief of Staff:

COLONEL: The signal station at Fort Davis, on Jerusalem plank road, reports that at 7.30 this a.m. 2,000 infantry appeared coming from woods northwest of large fort, and moved to our left on line of Weldon railroad. A few of them carried stretchers.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

P. A. TAYLOR,

Captain and Signal Officer.

HEADQUARTERS SECOND ARMY CORPS, September 27, 1864.(Received 10.20 a.m.)

General S. WILLIAMS,
Assistant Adjutant-General:

There has been no change in the disposition of my command since last report, except that the Ninth Corps have relieved a part of the extreme left of my picket-line.

WINF'D S. HANCOCK,

Major-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

No. 260. September 27, 1864.

Division commanders will impress upon the commanders of inclosed works the necessity of holding these works under every contingency; no matter what may occur in the connecting lines the forts are to be held. Properly defended they are capable of resisting the heaviest assaults the enemy can make, and any commander who vacates or yields one of them without orders from headquarters of the army, communicated through these headquarters, will be held to a strict accountability. In case of attack on the line the troops near the point of attack, after having resisted to the extent of their power, will form to protect the batteries between the forts. If driven from there they will be formed as reserves behind the works prepared to follow the enemy after they are broken by the fire of the works. Two hundred rounds of small-arm ammunition, exclusive of that on the persons of the men, will be kept in the magazines of the forts. The chief of artillery will provide a suitable amount of artillery ammunition for the field guns, especially of canister,and spherical case for each of the inclosed works. Where the magazines are not now in suitable condition for the reception of ammunition the fact will be at once communicated to these headquarters. Where the defect cannot be easily remedied by the garrison an engineer officer will be sent to take charge of the work. Ammunition must be examined and exposed to the daily when the weather admits. No changes affecting the field of fire for the artillery, the capacity of the works to hold troops, or, general, the offensive or defensive power of the forts will be made without previous reference to these headquarters. This prohibition is not intended, of course, to prevent commanders from giving the necessary instructions where immediate action is necessary.