and First Corps, with such lines of march in the case of the Eleventh Corps as you suggested, if you deemed it advisable, and that every effort should be made to overtake and attack the enemy before the crosses.

A. A. HUMPHREYS,

Major-General and Chief of Staff.

[27.]

HDQRS. MIDDLE DEPARTMENT, EIGHTH ARMY CORPS,
Baltimore, July 14, 1863.

Colonel ALEXANDER DOULL,

Inspector of Artillery, &c., Baltimore:

COLONEL: Your announcement that the special service as member of a court-martiall which has detained you in Baltimore is over, and that you are about to return to your duties with the Army of the Potomac, reminds me so forcibly of the great help you have rendered me in a time of emergency that I cannot let you go without thus repeating my acknowledgments. A large portion of the new works of defense which now cover the approaches to this city will remain to attest your energy, your untiring industry, your skill and judgment as an engineer, and above all you patriotic devotion to our country's commom cause, which induced you as a zealous volunteers to add so much effective performance to what the Governmenet required of you. At a time when my need was pressing, and sufficient engineer officers not at hand to devise and carry out fully a plan of protection which I desired for Baltimore, I should have fallen far short of the accomplishment of that object but for you assistance so cheerfully tendered and given. That assistance has been invaluable to the public service. For myself and in behafl of the Government I thank you for it. And now, in parting from you, colonel, after the brief but agreeble intercourse we have had, I can only add that I should have nothing but good augury for our country and its future interests if they were always sustained by as willing hearts and as active heads and hands as yours.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ROBT. C. SCHENCK,

Major-General, Commanding.

[27.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Numbers 190.
July 15, 1863.

1. The One hundred and fifty-eighth. One hundred and sixty-eighth, and One hundred and seventy-first Regiments of Pennsylvania Volunteers will proceed to Frederick, Md., and there await further orders. These troops on arriving at Frederick will be reported to Colonel E. Schriver, commanding at that place.

2. Battery B, First New Jersey Artillery, and Battery E, Rhode Island Artillery, will at once march to the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, encamping in Pleasant Valley, and there await the arrival of the Third Corps, which they will join.

* * *

By command of Major-General Meade:

S. WILLIAMS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

[27.]