HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
September 3, 1862-12 m.

General J. HOOKER:

(Care Captain Ferguson, assistant quartermaster, Alexandria.)

Your dispatch received.* You will please leave word at the quartermaster's and telegraph office where you can be found for the next three hours. The commanding general will be at Alexandria in a short time and wishes to visit your camp and to see you.

R. B. MARCY,

Chief of Staf.

[19.]

OFFICE OF CHIEF QUARTERMASTER,

Washington, D. C., September 3, 1862-1.05 p. M.

Captain FERGUSON,

Assistant Quartermaster, Alexandria, Va.:

The following dispatch has just been received.# You will please see to this matter.

RUFUS INGALLS,

Lieutenant Colonel Aide-de-Camp, andChief Qmr., Army of the Potomac.

[19.]

HEADQUARTERS,
September 3, 1862-11.52 p. M.

Captain C. B. FERGUSON,

Assistant Quartermaster, Alexandria, Va.:

Please send the following at once to Major H. L. Higginson, commanding two battalions First Massachusetts Cavalry, now encamped near Alexandria. The commanding general wishes you to see that this command is provided forthwith with two days' rations of subsistence and forage. It is of the utmost importance that it should start out at once, and the general wishes you to give your personal attention to getting it off. If possible send a guide with the command:

Major H. L. HIGGINSON,

Commanding Battlns. First Massachusetts Cavalry, near Alexandria:

The commanding general directs that you proceed forthwith with your command up the Potomac for the purpose of watching the various fords between the position already occupied by a portion of your regiment near Great Falls and the Point of Rocks. The service inntrusted to you is of the highest importance, and not a moment must be lost in proceeding to the scene of your duties. You will take two days' rations of subsistence and forage, with which Captain Ferguson assistant quartermaster at Alexandria, has been requested to see you provided. You must move without cooking your rations. You are not expected to engage the enemy, but simply to watch carefully his operations, and to give the commanding general timely notice should he appear in the quarter to which you are sent. The countersign to-night is Napoleon.

By command of Major-General McClellan:

S. WILLIAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[19.]

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*See VOL. XIX, Part II, p. 171.

#See Burnside to McClellan, 1 p. M., VOL. XIX, Part II, p.170.

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