Unknown, July 25, 1864

COLONEL :

On Saturday, the 9th of July, after consultation with the Secretary of War, I directed the alates of the QuartermasterGeneral’s Office, and the clerksand workmen employed by the officers of the quartermaster’s department in the District of Columbia and in Alexandria to be organized and armed. On Sunday, the 10th, arms were procured from the arsenal ; they were distributed on that day and on Monday. Such an organization had been made over a year since, but the arms then issued having been recalled, the organization in the departments of Washington and Alexandria had not been kept up. Lieutenant-Colonel Greene, chief quartermaster of the Military Department of Washington, however, under instructions from Major-General Augur, had retained the arms issued to the men employed under his direction, and had preserved the military organization.

Under orders of the Secretary of War, I reported to Major-General Halleck, chief of staff, late on the evening of the 9th, for such field services as would not too much interfere with my duties as Quartermaster-General, and was directed to provide for relieving the guards of the quartermaster’s stores, and some of the public buildings by the organized clerks and operatives of the Quartermaster’s Department. Finding that a movable force more than sufficient for this duty could be furnished by the Quartermaster’s Department, I offered their services to Major-General Augur, commanding the Department of Washington, and on the 11th July, it being reported that the enemy was advancing upon the Seventh-street road, I was requested to send them to report to Major-General McCook, headquarters at Fort Stevens. The battalion of clerks of the QuartermasterGeneral’s Office, about 250 strong, relieved the guards of the storehouses, corrals, &c., of the depots and of the public buildings, enabling the soldiers there employed to go to the front. The arrival without wagons or horses of portions of the Sixth Corps from the Army of the Potomac, and of the Nineteenth Corps from New Orleans, requiring new outfits of transportation, made it necessary to leave in the city a large portion of the wagon-masters, operatives, and teamsters, and reduce the movable force in the Washington depot to about 1,900 men, of which 1,500 were placed under the immediate command of Brig. Gen. D. H. Rucker, and with them I reported to Major-General McCook about sunset on the 11th ; and was directed to march to Fort Slocum and place the men as might be advised by Colonel Haskin, commanding the forts on the right. Colonel Haskin supplied a staff officer to point out in the darkness the line of rifle-pits extending from Fort Stevens to Fort Totten, about one mile in length. The men were posted therein and lay upon their arms all night.

The next morning, 12th, I received Special Orders, No. 2, from Major-General McCook’s headquarters, and assuming command of the troops in the intrenchments from Fort Stevens to Fort Totten, I

roceeded to organize them into a division of three brigades as folows: First Brigade, Brig. Gen. D. H. Rucker, composed of the quartermaster’s men of the depot of Washington, with a detachment of the Provisional Brigade, occupied the intrenchments on the right between Forts Stevens and Totten. Second Brigade, Brigadier-General Paine, composed of the Twelfth Veteran Reserves, the Second District of Columbia Volunteers, and three companies of the quartermaster’s men of the depot of Washington, occupied the intrenchments on the left, between Forts Slocum and Stevens. Third Brigade, commanded first by Colonel Price, of the [Seventh] New Jersey Volunteers, then by Col. A. Farnsworth, Twelfth Veteran Reserves, and afterward by Colonel Alexander, of the Second District of Columbia Volunteers, a provisional brigade of these regiments, organized from the hospital and convalescent and distribu256 OPERATIONS IN N. V. A., W. V. A., M. D., AND PA, = [Cuar. XLIX.

tion camps of the Department of Washington. It was placed in reserve and bivouacked in rear of Fort Slocum in the center of the line. The garrison of the two forts, Slocum and Totten, were a separate command, under Colonel Haskin, U. 8. Army, and though at first ordered to report to me the order was soon afterward revoked. Finding, however, that the garrison of Fort Slocum was not as strong as it should be, I ordered Colonel Price, then commanding the Provisional Brigade, to ascertain the number of artillerymen in his command and to send them to report to Colonel Haskin at Fort Slocum. The garrison thus received a re-enforcement of 105 trained artillerists.

The division thus organized on the morning of the 12th July, had an effective strength present for duty of 4,914 men and officers with one section of light artillery, which was placed in one of the trenches on the left. ;

During the 12th the enemy made their appearance in front of Fort Stevens, and a portion of the command, which had been placed on the skirmish or picket-line, was engaged.

But two casualties have been reported to me among civilians of the Quartermaster’s Department. A battalion of three companies of quartermaster’s men of the depot of Washington had moved out to Fort Stevens under orders from Major-General Augur only on the 11th, and a portion of these were engaged in the skirmish in front of Fort Stevens on the 12th. John Rynders, a member of Company B, was slightly wounded in the arm, and a former employé of the Quartermaster’s Department, who accompanied Company B as a volunteer, was shot through the body and almost instantly killed. He was buried with the others who fell in the skirmish, and I regret that I have not yet been able to ascertain his name ; when found it will be placed upon his grave, now marked ” unknown,” in the cemetery set apart

by order of the Secretary of War