SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF WASHINGTON, Numbers 60.
April 17, 1863.

* * * * *

3. Brigadier General G. J. Stannard will report to Brigadier General J. J. Abercrombie for assignment to the command of the Second Brigade, General Abercrombie's division.

By command of Major-General Heintzelman:

CARROLL H. POTTER,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

[25.]

NEWPORT BARRACKS,

April 17, 1863-7 p. m.

Major-General PECK:

I have been out since daylight this morning reconnoitering Swansborough and vicinity and have just returned, finding my scouts just in via Bogue Banks. They report that day before yesterday all the Georgians left excepting fifteen men. The reports that have been widely circulated of an increased force being sent this way is said in Swansborough to have been meant to cover the retirement of troops to Richmond. There is no one at Jacksonville, no one at Piney Green; the twenty men at Palo Alto have been cut down to eight, and three remain at Smith's Mills. Some dismounted cavalry in Onslow County are reported to have been sent to Virginia as infantry. There are two men from Kingston, at home in Swansborough on furlough, fishing. All can easily be captured and I respectfully and earnestly beg permission to go over to-morrow night and do it - or go up to-morrow to New Berne and submit to you a plan that has been long in preparation to do it. It can be done with no risk, I think.

EDW. H. RIPLEY,

Colonel.

Please reply to-night.

[18.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF WASHINGTON, Numbers 62.
April 19, 1863.

1. The following-named regiments will embark to-morrow, 20th instant, at 6 a. m. at foot of Sixth street, Washington, for Fortress Monroe, and will report to Major General John A. Dix: Tenth New Jersey Volunteers and One hundred and One hundred and eighteenth New York Volunteers. A sergeant and ten men from each regiment will remain as a guard of its Government property until it can be properly disposed of.

2. The following-named regiment will embark to-morrow, 20th instant, at 6 a. m. from pier Numbers 2, Alexandria, for Fortress Monroe, and will report there to Major General John A. Dix: Twenty-sixth Michigan Volunteers. A sergeant and ten men will remain as guard of its Government property until it can be properly disposed of.

3. The Second Brigade, Pennsylvania Reserve Corps (except the detachment now on duty at the Convalescent Camp), will report without delay to Brigadier General John P. Slough, military governor of Alexandria.

4. The Third Brigade, Pennsylvania Reserve Corps (except the regiment now on duty at Vienna), will report without delay to Brigadier General J. H. Martindale, military governor of Washington, D. C. Each brigade will leave a small guard in charge of its Government property until it can be disposed of.