NEW BERNE, N. C., December 4, 1864-6 p.m.

Colonel McCHESNEY,

Commanding Sub-District of Beaufort:

SIR: General Palmer directs me to inform you that a train will be at Carolina City at 6 a.m. to-morrow to bring up the Ninth New Jersey Volunteers. They must embark promptly.. If the Twenty-seventh have come over from Beaufort, or if they can be got over to-night, they will also be sent up. If not, they must be left behind. Please let me know at once where the Twenty-seventh Massachusetts Volunteers are, Colonel Stewart, Ninth New Jersey, as previously ordered, will be in command of the whole. None but armed men will be sent, as heretofore ordered. On arrival at the Trent River the troops will march to Spinola Wharf and carry out previous orders.

Respectfully, &c.

J. A. JUDSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
December 5, 1864-1 p.m.

Lieutenant-General GRANT:

Nothing of importance to report. A deserter confirms the reported death of the Confederate general Archibald Gracie. Wheaton's division, of the Sixth Corps, has arrived and is relieving Crawford's, of the Fifth. The divisions of the Fifth Corps, as they are relieved,, will be moved outside of the rear line of works between the Weldon railroad and the Jerusalem plank road.

GEO. G. MEADE,

Major-General.

CITY POINT, VA., December 5, 1864.

Major-General MEADE:

I read in a Richmond paper a full account of the death of General Gracie. The same shot killed a captain and a private, and wounded one other.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

CITY POINT, VA., December 5, 1864

Major General GEORGE G. MEADE,

Commanding Army of the Potomac;

You may make immediate preparations to move down the Weldon railroad for the purpose of effectually destroying it as far south as Hicksford, or farther if practicable. Send a force of not less than 20,000 infantry, sixteen or twenty guns, and all your disposable cavalry. Six days' rations and twenty rounds of extra ammunition will be enough to carry along. The infantry ammunition I think it will be advisable to carry in ambulances, six boxes to each team, to avoid heavy trains as far as possible. General Palmer probably started from New Berne yesterday or to-day with a force of from 3,000 to 4,000 men to cut the same road south of the Roanoke. His route is up the Chowan in steamers as far as he can get. The enemy are known to be fortify-