ments will be responsible for the regimental property and will make the required returns of his detachment to the regimental headquarters and the Adjutant-General. The foregoing instructions will be followed until further orders.

Very respectfully,

R. CHANDLER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY BRIGADE,
Near Falls Church, Va., August 23, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel J. H. TAYLOR,

Chief of Staff and Assistant Adjutant-General:

COLONEL: I have the honor to report that a citizen named J. J. Perk presented himself at the picket-lines this evening. He left Culpeper Court-House last Friday, and reports there are no troops there at present, except a small conscripting party and small parties of ten or fifteen daily passing through toward the Valley; that, as he estimates, 20,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry left Culpeper last Friday a week, he thinks, on the Sperryville road toward Thornton's Gap, but does not know, but they went via Warrenton to Chester Gap. Fitzhugh Lee has the cavalry; the infantry are a part of Longstreet's corps. He does not know whether or not there are troops at Warrenton. An examination of his method of estimating the strength of the force above referred to places it at about 10,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry. Cars run to Culpeper daily bringing supplies. Mr. Perk, who claims to be with family accompanying refugees, has been sent to Lieutenant-Colonel Wells. Nothing has been heard from the force under Colonel Gansevoort.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. M. LAZELLE,

Colonel Sixteenth New York Cavalry, Comdg. Cavalry Brigade.

HEADQUARTERS,
August 23, 1864.

Brevet Major-General CROOK,

Commanding Army, Martinsburg:

MY DEAR CROOK: Lowell found infantry and Fiz Lee's cavalry on the left, and McIntosh found infantry, cavalry, and artillery on the right, at Flowing Spring. I questioned another of the scouts, who confirms the story of Pickett and Field being here. These were the men I mentioned as being back near Winchester. One of Cole's cavalry, who lay in a hog-pen at Charlestown, says the camps are very large, and that trains came to the front yesterday evening and returned during the night. Have your cavalry on the alert in the morning.

Respectfully,

P. H. SHERIDAN.

AUGUST 23, 1864-5.25 a.m.

Captain A. E. DANA,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

Captain: I return, as directed the dispatch of General Wilson to Captain Reno. My picket, although very extended, is connecting with Generals Wilson and Custer. No movement has been discovered on