alry was left upon the opposite side of the river, with orders to patrol up the river as far as Soap Creek. During the afternoon Major-General Slocum, assigned to command of the corps, rode along my lines and was received with hearty enthusiasm by the men of his old command. August 27, during the day was very busily engaged perfecting my lines, constructing breast-works, rifle-pits, and abatis. The line to be held by my division being about two and three-fourths miles in length, required a vast amount of labor to place it in proper condition. Two pieces of Knap's battery were placed in position in a work thrown up on the right of the line for the purpose of defending the railroad bridge and other bridges at Montgomery's Ferry. Major-General Slocum to-day formally assumed command of the corps. August 28, 29, and 30 passed with slight skirmishing on the extreme picket-line, the troops busily engaged working on the defenses. August 31, at 6 a.m., in obedience to orders from corps headquarters, I sent out a reconnoitering party of 200 men under Colonel Flynn, Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers, Colonel Flynn, moving on the Buck Head road, found the enemy's cavalry pickets on the west side of Nancy's Creek. Moving to his left, he flanked and drove them and then crossed the creek, moving on the road to the right about a mile, where he again found the enemy posted in rail works on the farther edge of a cleared field. He exchanged a few volleys with them, but believing their numbers to be too great to be driven, and his object being to find, not to fight, the enemy, he retired, recrossed the creek, and, moving down the road, turned northward on a smaller road over which the corps had marched on the 18th of July. On again reaching the creek he found the enemy's cavalry pickets on the west side. These he quickly drove, and again crossing the stream and moving about a mile and a half, met the enemy intrenched in a field near the junction of the road on which he was marching this being the right of the same line he had encountered below. Having fulfilled his orders by ascertaining the position of the enemy, Colonel Flynn returned without loss.

September 1, day passed without change. September 2, in obedience to orders from corps headquarters, I sent out a reconnoitering party. The reconnaissance was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas M. Walker, One hundred and eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was composed of the One hundred and eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteers, Sixtieth New York Volunteers, and details from the One hundred and second New York and Twenty-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and twenty men from the Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry. Captain Lambert, acting assistant inspector-general, and Lieutenant Schilling, of my staff, accompanied Lieutenant-Colonel Walker. The reconnaissance moved out at 6 a.m. on the Buck Head road. Skirmishers were thrown to the front immediately after passing the pickets, but the column advanced, rapidly until after crossing Nancy's Creek and to the point at which the road branches to Buck Head. At this point the road gave indications of the recent passage of a column of cavalry. The main body was here halted, and the Sixtieth New York Volunteers sent down the Buck Head road to the junction of the Howell's Mill road. Having received intelligence of the arrival of the Sixtieth New York Volunteers at the point indicated, the column moved on, and the Sixtieth New York Volunteers was ordered to move toward Howell's Mill and there join the main body. On reaching the creek at the mill it was

10 R R-VOL XXXVIII, PT II