HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE JAMES, November 20, 1864.

Major-General MEADE:

Major-General Butler desires to know if you will send him a roster of your colored troops, and when you can send them to him in exchange for the pennsylvania Provisional troops.

JNumbers W. TURNER,
Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, November 20, 1864-5 p. m. (Sent 5.45 p. m.)

Brigadier General J. W. TURNER,

Chief of Staff, Major-General Butler's Headquarters:

The following regiments U. S. Colored Troops are now with this army: Nineteenth, Twenty-third, Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eight, Thirtieth, Thirty-ninth, and Forty-third. The Twenty-ninth and Thirty-first Regiments U. S. Colored Troops were sent to report to Brigadier-General Graham the night of the 18th instant, in compliance with instructions received from Brigadier-General Rawlins, chief of staff, headquarters Lieutenant-General Grant. The only orders that have reached me in relation to sending the colored troops of this army to General Butler's command are contained in General Rawlins' dispatch, of which I herewith submit a copy.* The order for the general transfer of the colored troops alluded to in the dispatch has not yet been received by me. General Parke informs me that the two regiments of white troops that were to have been sent to him when the two colored regiments transferred from the Ninth Corps reported to General Graham have not yet joined him.

GEO. G. MEADE,

Major-General, Commanding.

GENERAL BUTLER'S HEADQUARTERS, November 20, 1864. (Received 8.30 p. m.)

Major-General MEADE:

Major-General Butler desires me to say that he would have sent you the two white regiments but for the arrival of Kershaw's division in his front, and also the inclemency of the weather.

JNumbers W. TURNER,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. OF VA. AND N. C., ARMY OF THE Numbers 145.
JAMES, In the Field, Va., November 20, 1864.

I. Brigadier General J. W. Turner, U. S. Volunteers, is hereby announced as chief f staff of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, and of the Army of the James.

II. Captain H. B. Scott, assistant adjutant-general of volunteers, is hereby announced upon the staff of the major-general commanding this department and army.

By command of Major-General Butler:

ED. W. SMITH,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

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*See Rawlins to Meade, November 18, p. 638.

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