HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF WASHINGTON, 22ND ARMY CORPS,
October 19, 1864-10.30 p. m.

Brigadier-General SLOUGH,

Military Governor of Alexandria:

It is reported from Falls Church that a party (numbering about 200) of the enemy is at or in the vicinity of Fairfax Court-House. Your railroad guards should be on the alert. The Eighth Illinois Cavalry has been detached from Rectortown, and is in pursuit of Mosby's people.

Respectfully,

J. H. TAYLOR,

Chief of Staff and Assistant Adjutant-General.

ALEXANDRIA, VA., October 19, 1864.

(Received 7.20 p. m.)

Colonel TAYLOR,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

COLONEL: It is reported that fifty guerrillas were near Falls Church this forenoon. The posted at Accotink was fired on last night. Otherwise, all quiet.

W. W. WINSHIP,

Captain.

HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY BRIGADE,
Near Fort Buffalo, Va., October 19, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel J. H. TAYLOR,

Chief of Staff and Assistant Adjutant-General:

COLONEL: I have the honor to inform you that as next senior officer to Colonel H. M. Lazelle the command of the force of cavalry here has, on the receipt of his resignation, devolved upon men. The force of 400 men, mentioned in the report of October 17, left Annandale the same evening without making any demonstration at that point. One man who was on picket-post was taken prisoner while attempting to escape. About 2 a. m. on the morning of October 18 a force of Mosby's men, estimated at seventy-five, entered Falls Church village, halted at the church (brigade hospital), and, after breaking open the barn of Mr. Sines, a citizen who lives opposite, and taking therefrom five valuable horses, passed up the Alexandria and Lewinsville pike toward Vienna. The post at the junction of the Lewinsville road with the pike, consisting of one corporal and three men of the Sixteenth New York Cavalry, was captured, with one horse. A negro named Frank Brooks, belonging to the citizens home guard of the village, was shot dead while attempting to assist the picket in making a defense. Mr. J. B. Reed, a citizen and a member of the same guard, with one of his negro employes, were taken prisoners at the same time. Mr. Reed was afterward brutally murdered by the party who captured him in a dense pine wood near Hunter's Mill, and his body has been found and brought into his hours. An attempt to kill the negro taken with Mr. Reed was also made, and the rebels, supposing him dead, left him in the woods. He escaped afterward, however, and has but a slight wound in the head, with the loss of an ear, blown off by a pistol shot. There is no doubt concerning the murder of Mr. Reed, as the surgeon who