[Indorsement.]

Acknowledge receipt. The dispatch that I wrote said: "The troops and boats have left," meaning this point and not Yorktown. The navy gunboats will be of the greatest service in case of need, but at the first conception it was intended to depend on the army gunboats. Hence the delay in notifying the admiral.

J. G. FOSTER.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
October 4, 1863-12 m. (Received 12. 50 p. m.)

Major-General HALLECK:

In the various rebel accounts of the battle of the Chickamauga, mention is only made of the divisions of Hood and McLaws, of Longstreet's corps. Furthermore, in an account of an affair with Burnside's people, at Carter's Run, reference is made to Corse's brigade, belonging to Pickett's division. I has occurred to me that possibly that portion of Pickett's division withdrawn with Longstreet may have been sent against Burnside in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, and that if Burnside has withdrawn from that part of the country, these troops may have returned to Lee's army, via Lynchburg. This would account for the repeated assertions of deserters and the report of scouts that all of Pickett's division has returned to Lee. Have you any information bearing on this point?

The enemy this morning from their batteries at Somerville Ford shelled one of our wagons trains collecting forage in the front. Otherwise all is quiet along our lines.

GEO. G. MEADE,

Major-General, Commanding.

OCTOBER 4, [1863.]

Major-General SEDGWICK,

Commanding Sixth Corps:

The major-general commanding directs that to-morrow you relieve the Second Corps, Major-General Warren commanding, in the position now occupied and duties performed by it on the Rapidan, and that, as preliminary thereto, staff officers be sent to-day to ascertain the positions and picket lines of General Warren's corps and the roads by which your corps should march. General Warren now watches and pickets the front from Somerville Ford, on the Rapidan, or in that vicinity, to near Robertson's Ford, on Robertson's River. General Wheaton pickets on his left and the cavalry, General Kilpatrick, on his right. General Warren will be directed to communicate his instructions to you.

Only such wagons will be taken with the corps to the front as may be necessary to keep up the supplies directed to be on hand. Mitchell's Station, the headquarters of General Warren, is the point at which your supplies can be obtained from the railroad. Your trains will be parked at some secure point in the rear, from which they may be sent to the rear with facility and without interfering with the