HEADQUARTERS FIRST CAVALRY DIVISION,
September 28, 1864.

Brigadier General W. MERRITT:

GENERAL: General Sheridan just arrived here, inquiring for you. I told him you had sent two brigades west to Verify the reports received from the signal station, whereupon he replied, "Sensible fellow."

Very respectfully,

EDW. MYERS,

Lieutenant and Aide-de-Camp.

HEADQUARTERS MIDDLE MILITARY DIVISION,
Harrisonburg, September 28, 1864 - 10.30 p. m.

Brigadier General W. MERRITT,

Commanding First Cavalry Division:

GENERAL: The major-general commanding directs that you leave a small force at Swift Run and Brown's Gaps, to watch said gaps, and with the balance of your own and Custer's division swing around through or near Piedmont, extending toward and as near Staunton as possible. Destroy all mills, all grain and forage, you can, drive off or kill all stock, and otherwise carry out the instructions of Lieutenant-General Grant, and extract of which is sent you, and which means, "leave the Valley a barren waste." In carrying out these instructions, no villages or private houses will be burned. Camp closet the left of the infantry at Mount Crawford to-morrow night. The Sixth and Nineteenth Army Corps will move to Mount Crawford to-morrow.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. W. FORSYTH,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Chief of Staff.

[Inclosure.]

CITY POINT, VA., August 26, 1864 - 3 p. m.

Major-General SHERIDAN:

* * * * * * *

Do all the damage to railroads and crops you can. Carry off stock of all descriptions, and negroes, so as to prevent further planting. If the war is to last another year, we want the Shenandoah Valley to remain a barren waste.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

HDQRS. FIRST BRIGADE, SECOND CAVALRY DIVISION,
September 28, 1864.

Brigadier General G. A. CUSTER,

Commanding Second Cavalry Division:

GENERAL: My command has reached the north bank of the Middle River, at the fording over which our division crossed when we retired from this place. The commanding officer of the skirmish line reports the fence upon the opposite side thrown up in the from of a barricade, but apparently evacuated. The brigade from First Division has reached the heights above the town and are firing a few straggling shots, but