I have just received intelligence that the rebel cavalry have appeared on the Jamesville road.

Please send me word what other disposition you wish made of the force under my command, and what will be your plans under the altered circumstances.

Very respectfully,

EDWARD E. POTTER,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

Major General J. G. FOSTER,

Commanding Eighteenth Army Corps.

OFF HILL'S POINT, April 18, 1862-2 p. m.

GENERAL: We occupied Rodman's Point last evening with five companies of the Fifth Rhode Island, a 6-pounder smooth-bore, and a navy howitzer. There was some skirmishing between the rebel pickets and our own; one of them (the rebels) was killed and 3 prisoners taken-a captain, drum-major, and a private. Later I sent three companies of the Forty-fourth with a field piece to Hill's Point. Here they were to be joined by the detachment of the Forty-third lying in the river. I have visited both placed to-day. They have commenced throwing up works at both places and will soon be in an excellent condition for defense. A gunboat lies off each Point. At Rodman's the rebels left behind them a 32-pounder carriage. Their cavalry came down on the Jamesville road yesterday evening only with a view of picking up stragglers, as I was told by 5 deserters who came in this morning. The enemy are in full retreat, and their show of resistance yesterday in the muddy roads. Our pickets have been out to-day nearly to the cross-roads, as I am told by the lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth Rhode Island, and have seen nothing of them. If we had had sufficient force to pursue them I think some of their guns might have been taken. I shall continue the work on the castle, and also those laid out between Block-houses Nos. 3 and 4. A large supply of ammunition came up this morning.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

EDWARD E. POTTER,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

Major-General FOSTER,

Commanding Eighteenth Army Corps.

A dispatch from General Naglee addressed to you arrived yesterday, which I opened.

Numbers 4. Itinerary of the First Division, Eighteenth Army Corps, Brigadier General Innis N. Palmer, U. S. Army, commanding, April 7-25.*

April 7.-The Forty-third and seventeenth Massachusetts Regiments, of the First Brigade, and Fifth Massachusetts, of the Second Brigade, together with other troops of the Eighteenth Army Corps, crossed the Neuse River, and under General Spinola marched to the relief of the besieged garrison at Washington, N. C.

---------------

*From Division Return for April, 1863.

---------------