HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, La., April 26, 1864.

Brevet Major General JOHN A. RAWLINS,

Chief of Staff, Hdqrs. Armies of the United States,

Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to transmit my report of the operations of the Army of the Shenandoah, from August 4, 1864, to February 27, 1865, with reports of subordinate commanders; also sub-reports to my report of the march from Winchester to Petersburg, commencing February 27, 1865.* I have been long rendering this report, but the many changes to which I was subjected, and which separated me from sub-reports, and the arduous labors which I for a long time had after assignment to my present command, I beg to submit as my excuses for my great neglect.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

P. H. SHERIDAN,

Major-General, U. S. Army.

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, February 3, 1866.

GENERAL: I have the honor to make the following report of the campaign in the Valley of the Shenandoah, commencing August 4, 1864:

On the evening of the 1st of August I was relieved from the command of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac, to take command of the Army of the Shenandoah, and on arriving at Washington, on the 4th instant, I received directions from Major General H. W. Halleck, Chief of Staff, to proceed without delay to Monocacy Junction, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and report in person to the lieutenant-general. At Monocacy the lieutenant-general turned over to me the instructions which he had previously given to Major-General Hunter, commanding the Department of West Virginia, a copy of which is herewith attached. The Army of the Shenandoah at this time consisted of the Sixth Corps, very much reduced in numbers; one division of the Nineteenth Corps; two small infantry divisions, under command of General Crook, afterward designated as the Army of West Virginia; a small division of cavalry under General Averell, which was at that time in pursuit of General McCausland, near Moorefield, McCausland having made a raid into Pennsylvania and burned the town of Chambersburg. There was also one small division of cavalry, then arriving at Washington from my old corps. The infantry portion of these troops had been lying in bivouac in the vicinity of Monocacy Junction and Frederick City, but had been ordered to march the day I reported, with directions to concentrate at Halltown, four miles in front of Harpers' Ferry. After my interview with the lieutenant-general I hastened to Harper's Ferry to make preparations for an immediate advance against the enemy, who then occupied Martinsburg, Williamsport, and Shepherdstown, sending occasional raiding parties as far as Hagerstown, Md. The concentration of my command at Halltown alarmed the enemy and caused him to concentrate at or near Martinsburg, drawing in all his parties from the north side of the

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*The sub-reports of operations subsequent to February 27, 1865, to appear in Vol. XLVI.

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