Shortly after delivering the above, I carried the following order or, word to the same effect:

We will soon withdraw our lines. you will have your command ready to follow the movement without delay, and without further instructions, when you see our line falling back. In doing so, use the utmost care not to anticipate our movement and the greatest judgment and coolness in withdrawing you line. Do not let it be done hurriedly or with confusion.

I further indicated the direction in which he should retire his line, and also suggested to Colonel Morris that Lieutenant-Colonel Hammell should take his position on a rise of ground near by, from which he could carefully observe the movement and report the same without delay.

I am, sir, most respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. D. MILLER,

Lieutenant and Aide-de-Camp.

Major JOHN HANCOCK,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Second Division.

Numbers 68. Report of Brigadier General John C. Caldwell, U. S. Army, commanding First Brigade.

HEADQUARTERS CALDWELL'S BRIGADE,
May 12, 1863.

MAJOR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by my brigade in the movements commencing April 28 and terminating May 6:

In company with the rest of the division, we broke camp on the morning of Tuesday, April 28, and marched to within a short distance of Banks' Ford, where we bivouacked for the night, with pickets covering our right and front. Here the Fifth New Hampshire and Eighty-first Pennsylvania Volunteers were detailed to guard the houses in the vicinity and picket the road between our camp and the United States Ford, and did not rejoin the brigade until the morning of the [2nd of May].

On April 29, we marched forward to within 2 miles of the ford and bivouacked. We resumed the march on the morning of the 30th, and crossed the Rappahannock on pontoons, and bivouacked in the edge of the woods, near a white house, about 5 miles from the ford.

The next morning we marched to Chancellorsville, and out on the road toward Fredericksburg, a distance of over a mile from Chancellorsville. I here formed the One hundred and forty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers in line of battle ont he right of the road, and deployed the Sixty-first New York Volunteers some 200 yards in front as skirmishers. General Sykes' pickets were then in our front, retiring, skirmishing. On our right ta brigade of the Twelfth Corps was retreating at double-quick, as Colonel Miles reports, without a rear guard. After remaining in our position for more than an hour, in obedience to orders from General Hancock, I fell back the road. The enemy followed up very rapidly, and the troops of General Sykes soon became engaged. i formed my brigade in line of battle in the open field near Chancellorsville, the One hundred and forty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers on the right and the Sixty-first New York Volunteers on the left. My