I am also directed to call your attention to the following extract from your report of operations on the 30th of September:

At 1.30 p. m. we again moved to the left to the support of the Eighteenth Corps, taking position between a battery on our right and extending to the left, opposite the house.

General Birney's orders to you were to relieve the left of General Paine's command, of the Eighteenth Corps, taking position in the trenches on the right of the Forty-fifth U. S. Colored Troops. The position held by you as described in your report was near the extreme right of General Paine's line.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

M. BAILEY,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. PROVISIONAL BRIGADE, ARMY OF THE JAMES, DEFENSES OF BERMUDA HUNDRED, VA.,
October 16, 1864.

Lieutenant C. H. CURTIS,

Thirteenth new Hampshire Volunteers:

LIEUTENANT: I am directed by Major-General Butler, commanding Department of Virginia and North Carolina, to thank you personally, in his name, for the vigilance, promptness, and energy displayed by you in causing the arrest of one Kidder, who obtained access to our lines by passing himself off as a major in the service of the United States. Under the pretense of securing and sending home the remains of a gallant officer who fell in the charge upon Fort Harrison, from whose afflicted farther he had received $100 for that purpose, he had devoted himself industriously to acquainting himself with the distribution of our forces and the position and armament of our batteries. From the shifts he resorted to, now representing himself as belonging to a certain regiment, now as on duty in charge of a portion of the line, with sword and sash on, to delude the unsuspecting, we have reason to believe that he designed evil to our cause. This has been averted by your timely action. Being on duty in the quartermaster's department, and not supposed to be giving particular attention to the action of officers apparently on duty, your shrewdness in detecting this imposter, if not a traitor and spy, is all the more commendable. It is with earl pleasure, therefore, that I tender you the approbation and warm thanks of General Butler, and congratulate you upon the favorable notice your services have received from department headquarters.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. H. POTTER,

Colonel Twelfth New Hampshire Volunteers, Commanding Brigade.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA,
In the Field, October 16, 1864. (Received 9.20 p. m.)

Brigadier-General KAUTZ:

In accordance with orders from Lieutenant-General Grant I hereby assume command of this army during General Butler's temporary absence.

G. WEITZEL,

Brevet Major-General.