Congratulatory orders from Brigadier General Henry A. Wise, C. S. Army commanding First Military District, Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. FIRST MILITARY DISTRICT, Numbers 11. Dept. of N. C. and S. Virginia, June 12, 1864.

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VII. To the troops of my command for the defense of Petersburg, on the south side of the Appomattox, on the 9th instant, I have, with the approval and under the instructions of the commanding general, to offer my grateful acknowledgment for their gallant conduct and my congratulations upon their successful repulse of the enemy. Approaching with nine regiments of infantry and cavalry, and at least four pieces of artillery, they searched our lines from Battery Numbers 1 to Battery 29, a distance of nearly 6 miles. Hood's and Batte's battalion, the Forty-sixth Regiment Virginia Volunteers, and one company, Captain Woods', Company F, of the Twenty-third South Carolina, with Sturdivant's battery and a few guns in position,and Taliaferro's cavalry kept them at day and punished them severally until they reached the Jerusalem plank road in front of Battery 29, defended by Major Archer's corps of reserves and second-class militia, and by one piece of Sturdivant's battery, a howitzer, under the temporary command of Brigadier-General Colston. Thus, with overwhelming numbers, they were twice repulsed, and succeeded only at last in penetrating a gap in the lines and in flanking a mere handful of citizen soldiers,who stood firmly and fourth bravely as veterans, until ordered to fall back. Also, some of the noblest of the them fell with their backs to the ground and their front to the foe, consecrating commanders have report the heroism of them all-the living and the dead-and now with pride and gratitude I announce that Beauregard himself has thanked Arched and his comrades on the very spot of their devotion. If they lost killed, wounded, and missing 65 out of less divant's batteries lost one gun, a better dearly captured and another disabled; and if they lost a half mile of ground they gained an half hour of time and saved their beloved city by holding on long enough for Sturdivant's and Graham's and Young's batteries, Dearing's cavalry, and the Forty-sixth Virginia Infantry, with Woods' (South Carolina) company, a company of convalescents and a company of penitents, to drive back the insolent foe from approaches which their footsteps for the first time polluted. With the help of God it shall be the last time. With such troops as all have proven themselves, commanders may well gave assurance with confidence to the people of Petersburg. A people who can thus fight for their altars must be aided, supported, guarded by every arm which can be outstretched for their defense. Comrades, their wives and daughters, are daily and hourly nursing our sick and wounded; they wipe the hot brow, cool the fevered lips, and tenderly nourish and comfort the suffering soldiers in their hospitals. The angels nurses and the stricken patients of this patriotic shall not full into the hands of ruffian invaders. Its very militia has set an example which