HEADQUARTERS FOURTH ARMY CORPS,
Fort Yorktown, Va., May 17, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel L. H. PELOUZE,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Department of Virginia:

COLONEL: I have the honor to forward to you (according to instructions from Headquarters Army of the Potomac) instructions given me from the same headquarters. I expect my command will have all arrived by this evening. While it is my great desire to literally carry out the orders of my chief, I intend also to act in compliance with the wishes and instructions of the major-general in whose department I am to temporarily remain. Any advice, suggestion, or instructions that the major-general commanding the department may do me the honor to forward I shall be pleased to receive and promptly to execute.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. KILPATRICK,

Colonel, Commanding Cavalry Brigade.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
May 13, 1863.

Colonel KILPATRICK,

Commanding Cavalry Brigade:

COLONEL: The major-general commanding directs that you assume command of the regiments of cavalry now with you at Yorktown; that you will hold your force well in hand, inflicting whatever damage the legitimate rules of war sanction upon the enemy, his supplies, and his communications. You will observe his movements as far as possible. You will take with you from this camp the dismounted men of both regiments and remount them there with captured animals. You will report by letter and telegraph as occasion requires, holding your command ready to co-operate with this army in its operations.

You will furnish General Keyes, or the commanding officer in whose department you may temporarily remain, with copies of your instructions that you may receive from time to time.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. WILLIAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

DISTRICT OF THE ALBEMARLE,

Plymouth, N. C., May 17, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel SOUTHARD HOFFMAN,

Asst. Adjt. General, Department of North Carolina:

COLONEL: I have the honor to report the condition of affairs in the district as follows:

The lines in front of this town are in progress toward completion. The parapet of Fort Williams is now well sodded on its exterior slope, as also three sides of the superior slope and palisades, ready for the ditch.

The breastworks on the right and left are being strengthened by a substantial revetment of timber and the ditch considerably widened, as also the epaulement on the left of the Columbia road.

The excavation and revetment of the redoubt near Boyle Creek is nearly complete, and will be ready for the gun by the last of this week. The redoubt above, intended for the protection of river obstruc-

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