My requests for transportation for troops and materials were promptly filled and cars were held ready for use by Mr. Scott and Mr. Cameron, who also sent agents to the arsenals to procure as quickly as possible the arms, ammunition, equipments,&c., called for. I have to rely upon the necessity and urgency of the occasion and the absence of all facilities on the part of the State and of the Government and of all officers of the Quartermaster's and Commissary Departments to warrant my course and to ask the Secretary of War to approve of the orders given by me. On the morning of the 21st of April I debarked from the cars near Cockeysville, some fourteen miles from Baltimore, some 3,400 men, organized into regiments, armed, ammunitioned, and with some rations, but mainly dependent on agents at York for provisions, all under the command of General Wynkoop, of Pennsylvania. In the command there was no one known to me of any experience in command of such men, in large or small organizations. There were evidently some excellent officers, but all were strangers to each other, to their commander, and to me. Fortunately I found just arrived there from Washington, via Baltimore, Colonel Richard Delafield, of the Engineer Corps, and Captain Daniel Tyler, of Connecticut, both much older than I both experienced and intelligent advisers, and of undoubted influence. They joined me in giving confidence to General Wynkoop and instructions to him and his subordinates. I had been greatly disappointed in not having Major Thomas' command and Major Sherman's battery of Third Artillery, which I had ordered to join the column at Harrisburg as it came from the West, to accompany our column and in having ready the materials and party to repair the railroad bridges, which had been destroyed on the 20th instant. I had hoped on arrival at Cockeysville to have pushed on at once to Baltimore leaving sufficient forces on the road to protect it. From my friends in Baltimore I received warning to be ular troops with the column. I was informed that Major Thomas would certainly be at Harrisburg that evening, and that Major Sherman would probably arrive that night, and also that the bridge repair party and materials would be ready to leave under Major Thomas' escort. Seeing these troops properly placed in bivouac and having guards on the adjacent hills to keep all men within bounds, and enjoining that no citizens, and especially persons from Baltimore, should be admitted to the camp or to mix with the guards, and assured by General Wynkoop and other officers of proper vigilance on these points, I hastened to Harrisburg to bring up the U. S. troops and the bridge party, &c,. which Mr. Cameron had prepared. I assured General Wynkoop I would return that night prepared to move on the next morning. He felt in every way the need and urgency of this support and the advice of the regular officers, and the confidence which regular troops would give his men. Colonel Delafield and Captain Tyler returned with me as far as York. They knew why I was going. They volunteered on arriving at Philadelphia to write to the General-in-Chief telling him of my movements and approving of all I had done, and, as far as they knew, I intended. Colonel Delafield has since informed me that he did so. Late that afternoon Major Thomas, with 400 cavalry (dismounted), tolerably equipped, arrived at Harrisburg. Major Sherman had not arrived. By dark we had embarked on the cars, and, followed by the bridge builders and materials, we reached York near midnigth, when we were stopped by notice of an approaching locomotive with a bearer of dispatches from Washington directing the return to York, and moving, via Philadelphia, of all troops on the Northern