and enlisted men belonging to these regiments on detached duty in this command are hereby relieved and will report to their regimental commanders without delay.

* * * * * *

By command of Brigadier-General Graham:

R. DALE BENSON,

Aide-de-Camp and Acting Assistant-General.

CITY POINT, VA., November 24, 1864-10.30 a. m.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

The following dispatch just received from General Meade:

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, November 24, 1864-10.30 a. m.

Brigadier-General RAWLINS:

Nothing now or important this morning except the arrival of deserters, who report the occupation of Macon by Sherman.

GEO. G. MEADE,
Major-General.

JNumbers A. RAWLINS,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 24, 1864.

Lieutenant General ULYSSES S. GRANT,

Commander of the Armies of the United States, Near Petersburg, Va.:

GENERAL: I inclose, for your information and for any opinion which you may think proper to express, a translation of the instructions which Mr. Geoffrey, the charge d'affaires of France, proposes to give to Captain Marivault, of the French Navy, and Mr. Paul, the French consul at Richmond, in regard to the removal within our lines of the subjects of France now within the lines of the insurgents.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

[Inclosure Numbers 1.]

LEGATION OF FRANCE TO THE UNITED STATES, Washington, November 23, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor to send you a copy of the last communication

exchanged with the Department of State upon the matter of the French subjects who desire to leave the South. You will therein see that, while regretting that the Government does not instruct him to transport them himself and by American vessels, Lieutenant-General Grant declares that he is ready to carry our plan into execution. Upon reading that remark I went to see Mr. Seward, and have explained to him that if I thought the transportation of our French subjects could have been executed by vessels of the American Government I should have