The 44th NY at Alexandria, Official Correspondence of George Sykes
GENERAL: The regiments from this corps on duty at Alexandria are the Eleventh U.S. Infantry, the Forty-fourth New York Volunteers, and the Fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. I am very much opposed to these troops being under the control of the commander at Alexandria, and was always averse to their being sent there. It seems to me that the duty they are required to perform could be quite as well performed stationed with their divisions as at Alexandria. One brigade of the Third Division has been kept about Washington since last July, and I cannot get it in the field. The three regiments now about to be placed under General Briggs will in all probability share the same fate. Surely the regimental commanders can control the discipline and police of their troops. I have great difficulty now in getting returns, reports, &c., from these regiments, owing to their remote stations. If the order indicated in your telegram is issued, am I to retain these regiments on my returns or not?
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
GEO. SYKES,
Major-General, Commanding.
Series I, Volume XXIII, Book 60, Page 574