to Captain H. A. Du Pont, Fifth U. S. Artillery, chief of artillery. The commanding general of the Military District of Harper's Ferry will send a suitable escort with the battery.

By command of Major-General Crook:

WM. McKINLEY, JR.,

Captain and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS FORCES WEST OF HANCOCK, MD.,
Cumberland, Md., December 10, 1864.

Captain CLARENCE E. IRWIN,

Comdg. Detach. First W. Va. Vol. Infty., Cumberland, Md.:

CAPTAIN: You will proceed with forty men to Frankfort and Springfield, in Hampshire Coutny, W. Va., on a scout, and remain at once or the other place, or in the neighborhood, until the 20th instant or until further orders. You will take with you five days' rations of hard bread, sugar, coffee, and salt, and will rely on the country for beef. For any cattle you may take issue a voucher, payable on proof of loyalty, and report the same to commissary of subsistence at this post on your return. The object of your scout is the capture of Short, Montgomery, Lamar, Daily, and Martin, and any other guerrilla that may be found in that neighborhood. You are expected to be constantly active and the either kill, capture, or drive out of the country the guerrillas and horse-thieves that now infest that region. You will keep these headquarters fully advised by sending couriers to Patterson's Creek with your communications. Further supplies will be sent you to Patterson's Creek, whenever you may require.

This by direction of Brevet Major-General Kelley.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

T. MELVIN,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

CITY POINT, December 10, 1864.

Major General LEW. WALLACE:

Get one of the regular regiments of your command in readiness to come to City Point immediately on receipt of orders.

By command of Lieutenant-General Grant:

T. S. BOWERS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS MIDDLE DEPARTMENT,
December 10, 1864.

Colonel BOWERS,

Headquarters Armies of the United States, City Point, Va.:

Your telegram received. The regular troops are now distributed all over this department, but one regiment can be ready to leave Annapolis in forty-eighth hours, or as soon as they can be collected at that point. It will leave that large camp almost without a guard, but I will do my utmost to execute your orders promptly, and send other troops there. I have been obliged to send some of the regulars to the Eastern Shore, their presence being very necessary there.

LEW. WALLACE,

Major-General, Commanding.