recovered in good order, and the bridge over Youghiogheny west of Oakland burnt, which we are to-day rebuilding. The raid was of cavalry and I hope to intercept their retreat.

ROBT. C. SCHENCK,

Major-General, Commanding.

[25.]

HDQRS. MIDDLE DEPARTMENT, EIGHTH ARMY CORPS,
Baltimore, April 28, 1863.

Honorable J. K. MOORHEAD,

Pittsburg, Pa.:

See my telegram to Governor Curtin repeated to Colonel Cross. Since then I learn that all the works at Rowlesburg and Cheat River are safe. I have communication and the railroad open all but twenty miles between Grafton and Rowlesburg. I have no confirmation yet of the rebel force extending to Morgantown, but it may be so.

ROBT. C. SCHENCK,

Major-General, Commanding.

[25.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
April 29, 1863-6.30 p. m.

General COUCH, or

COMMANDING OFFICER UNITED STATES FORD:

[The] major-general directs that a messenger [be sent] to run his horse to Kelly's Ford, starting with this dispatch to Captain Comstock or the officer in charge of the bridges there. These orders [are that] not a wagon must cross the bridges after this line reaches Captain Comstock. The bridges will be immediately taken up and removed to Ely's Ford. The wagons must return to United States Ford. The general prefers that not a dragoon should cross the river rather than the bridge should have been made use of by them.

By command of Major-General Hooker:

S. WILLIAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[25.]

HDQRS. MIDDLE DEPARTMENT, EIGHTH ARMY CORPS,
Baltimore, April 29, 1863.

Brigadier General B. F. KELLEY,

Commanding, &c., Harper's Ferry, Va.:

GENERAL: I inclose you copies of the correspondence* by telegraph between Colonel Wilkinson and myself, and call your attention particularly to what relates to the burning of the bridge six miles east of Clarksburg. If the colonel does not ask for a court of inquiry I think I shall have to submit the matter to a court-martial. Two bridges near Burton, on the railroad between Grafton and Wheeling, are reported to have been burnt by the citizens of the neighborhood. You will institute, if such be the case, a rigid investigation, to ascertain who were concerned in the act. If they were disloyal persons, who did it in aid of the rebels, they must be at once arrested for punishment. If they were Union citizens, who resorted to it as a means of cutting off the

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*See VOL. XXV, Part II, pp. 296, 297.

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