HEADQUARTERS SECOND DIVISION, NINTH ARMY CORPS, July 17, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel LEWIS RICHMOND,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Ninth Army Corps:

COLONEL: Permit me to call attention to the inclosed extracts* from the reports of Colonel Steere, commanding First Brigade of this division, of yesterday and to-day. You will see that these attempts to communicate with the enemy are made with the sanction and seemingly under the direction of the officers commanding the troops on my right. Under the orders I have received I have instructed my officer of the day not to permit anything of the kind anywhere within range of my guns, although not on my front, but if these attempts are permitted and persisted in elsewhere, whilst prohibited on my line, it only has the effect of attracting and exciting the suspicion of the enemy to that portion of the line from which we are most desirous to divert it. The enemy have been communicated with several times from the same point.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ROBERT B. POTTER,

Brigadier-General.

HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY CORPS,
Before Petersburg, Va., July 17, 1864.

Brigadier General R. B. POTTER,

Commanding Second Division:

GENERAL: I am directed by the general commanding to say that the two regiments on fatigue duty have been ordered to report to their brigades. It would be well, to avoid the possibility of mistake, for you to send and order to them yourself. You can, at the same time, send an order to the Seventh Rhode Island to be under arms ready for any emergency, but I prefer that the last-named regiment should not be put in line unless it becomes absolutely necessary.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

LEWIS RICHMOND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY CORPS,
Before Petersburg, Va., July 17, 1864.

Brigadier General O. B. WILLCOX,

Commanding Third Division:

GENERAL: I am directed by the general commanding to say that it will be well to have the Seventeenth Michigan ready to move out in case of necessity, but he does not desire it to be unless emergency requires it.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

LEWIS RICHMOND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

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* Not found.

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