as you seem to suppose, and would be glad to know them as far as my own position and operations are concerned.

I understood you clearly that at all hazards I was to prevent the enemy from passing the Rappahannock. This I have done and shall do. I don't like to be on the defensive if I can help, but must be so as long as I am tied to Burnside's forces, not yet wholly arrived at Fredericksburg. Please let me know, if it can be done, what is to be my own command, and if I am to act independently against the enemy. I certainly understood that as soon as the whole of our forces were concentrated you designed to take command in person, and that when everything was ready we were to move forward in concert. I judge from the tone of your dispatch that you are dissatisfied with something. Unless I know what it is, of course I cannot correct it. The troops arriving here come in fragments. Am I to assign them to brigades and corps? I would suppose not, as several of the new regiments coming have been assigned to army corps directly from your office. In must know what forces I am to take and what you wish left and what connection must be kept up with Burnside. It has been my purpose to conform my operations to our plans, yet I was not informed when McClellan evacuated Harrison's Landing, so that I might know what to expect in that direction, and when I say these things in no complaining spirit I think you know well that I am anxious to do everything to advance your plans of campaign. I understood that his army was to maintain the line of the Rappahannock until all the forces from the Peninsula had united behind that river. I have done so. I understood distinctly that I was not to hazard anything except for this purpose, as delay was what was wanted.

The enemy this morning has pushed a considerable infantry force up opposite Waterloo Bridge and is planting batteries, and long lines of his infantry are moving up from Jeffersonville toward Sulphur Spring. His whole force, as far as can be ascertained, is massed in front of me, from railroad crossing of Rappahannock around to Waterloo Bridge, their main body being opposite Sulphur Spring.

JNO. POPE,

Major-General.

Numbers 44. [Extract.-Received August 26, 1862, from War Department, 11.45 a. m.] UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH.

Major-General POPE:

Not the slightest dissatisfaction has been felt in regard to your operations on the Rappahannock.* The main object has been accomplished in getting up troops from the Peninsula, although they have been decayed by storms. Moreover the telegraph has been interrupted, leaving us for a time ignorant of the progress of the evacuation. * * *

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

Numbers 45. HEADQUARTERS SECOND CORPS, August 25-11.25 a. m.

Colonel RUGGLES:

COLONEL: Inclosed you will please find reports by Colonel Clark,

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*The whole dispatch appears in "Correspondence, etc.," Part III, p. 666.

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