HDQRS. PROVISIONAL DIVISION, ARMY OF THE JAMES,
Fort Richmond, N. Y., November 13, 1864.

Brigadier General GEORGE H. GORDON,

Chief of Staff, &c.:

SIR: I have the honor to forward herewith the field return* of this force for this morning. Notwithstanding guards about the barracks and forts numbering 130, exclusive of pickets at four ferry landings (one of them four or five miles distant), and patrols of varying strength, I am pained and mortified to be obliged to report 154 of the infantry alone absent without leave. Many of these are doubtless willful deserters; in other cases, men only intended to run the guard to visit rum shops and other places even less reputable, and are on the Island intoxicated or straggling. Our ignorance of the local geography, and the want of unity and efficiency in the local police, have greatly embarrassed us. Yesterday I telegraphed a request that the provost-marshals be directed to co-operate with us. I wish that some capable detectives from the provost-marshal's force might be sent here quietly, who could guide my patrols and make their labors more effective. Some censure I have justly, I think, visited upon regimental and company officers, who might, by proper personal attention to their men and by holding their non-commissioned officers to a rigid accountability, have prevented a portion of this loss. But in one

case, to my knowledge (and probably others have occurred), two out of four placed on guard at an important point themselves deserted. So it is probable that in other cases the sentries knowingly permitted men to pass the camp lines. Any one knowing the ground here, and the character of accomplished bounty-jumpers and deserters, sees that it is exceedingly difficult, indeed impossible, to wholly prevent desertion. I have a few men under arrest who were caught about the Island. My force has not been formally constituted as a separate brigade or as a division; so I have hesitated about ordering a general court-martial and sentencing some examples to be shot on the spot. The officers of the guard are inflicting very severe corporal punishment, without waiting for formalities.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOS. R. HAWLEY,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS CITY OF NEW YORK,
November 13, 1864. (Received 2.10 p. m.)

Brigadier-General HAWLEY,

Fort Richmond:

GENERAL: You will, without delay, embark your own division troops of Army of the James, and proceed to the Army of the James. The quartermaster has been ordered to furnish transportation.

GEO. H. GORDON,

Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff.

HDQRS. PROVISIONAL DIVISION, ARMY OF THE JAMES,
Fort Richmond, N. Y., November 13, 1864.

Brigadier General GEORGE H. GORDON,

Chief of Staff, &c.:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt at this moment, 2.10 p. m., of the dispatch ordering the forces under my command to

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*Not found.

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