instructions for you to communicate it to General Pleasonton and other commanders to the front, viz:

An immense wagon train is moving in the direction of Shannondale from toward Bunker Hill. The head of the train is now about twelve miles to the left (from Maryland Heights) of Charlestown. The troops are also moving by the same road, but it is so smoky we cannot distinguish their character.

HALL AND TAYLOR,

Lieutenants and Acting Signal Officers.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEO. D. RUGGLES,

Colonel and Assistant Chief of Staff.

[19.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEFENSES OF WASHINGTON, Numbers 49.
October 28, 1862.

* * * * * *

2. The One hundred and thirty-third New York Volunteers, Colonel L. D. H. Currie, is detached from the Second Brigade of Abercrombie's division, and will, with the One hundred and sixty-second New York Volunteers, form the nucleus of a brigade, to be commanded for the present by the senior colonel and to be attached temporarily to Abercrombie's division. General Casey will direct the One hundred and sixty-second New York to report to General Abercrombie without delay.

* * * * * * *

By command of Major-General Heintzelman:

RICHD. B. IRWIN,
Captain, Aide-de-Camp, and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

[19.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
October 29, 1862--2 p. m.

His Excellency the PRESIDENT:

In reply to your dispatch of this morning,* I have the honor to state that the accounts I get of the enemy's position and movements are very conflicting. A dispatch I have just received from General Kelley, at Cumberland, says three ladies, just in at Cherry Run from Martinsburg, report that Generals Hill, Jackson, and Hampton are encamped near there, with a regiment of cavalry at Hedgesville. General Pleasonton reports from Purcellville yesterday that information from Union people places Hill's command at Upperville, adn that troops have been passing there for some days; that their pickets extend as far as the Snickersville and Aldie turnpike, over which they allow no one to pass, north or south. Pleasonton reports this morning that a Union Quaker, who escaped from the rebels yesterday, says he saw Longstreet at Upperville day before yesterday; that he had 18,000 men with him. Pleasonton also states that it is reported to him that Stuart with two brigades was at Berryville; that Walker's brigade was at Upperville. A union man told him that Longstreet was at Upperville, Bloomfield, and Middleburg. General Couch reports yesterday that a contraband who came into Harper's Ferry from beyond Charlestown says Hill's division came back from near Leetown on Sunday, and that the cavalry

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*See 11.15 a. m., VOL. XIX, Part II, p. 504.

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57 R R--VOL LI, PT I