Official Report, 44th NY in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Major-General PORTER:
GENERAL: Report just received from commander of Forty-fourth New York:
Relieved Fourteenth Indiana, my outposts over the hill. Enemy's camp-fires can be seen in the woods in the valley below. The enemy's cavalry have appeared twice to-day; driven back both times by the Fourteenth Indiana.
My reply:
If enemy appear, drive them back, as Fourteenth Indiana did. Report number of the enemy, apparently, in the valley below, judging by their fires, and the extent of their camp; also what distance do they lie from you. I send the two orderlies. Send in a full report at daybreak, or shortly after, and give us every information. Watch the enemy's movements closely, and keep a good lookout for everything moving in your front, and report it.
I have sent the sharpshooters on the hill, as directed, but they were late in getting there. I will be found in your tent; mine not here.
Yours, truly and respectfully,
BUTTERFIELD.
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
Upperville, November 4, 1862.
Maj. Gen. FITZ JOHN PORTER, Commanding Fifth Corps:
General McClellan desires me to say that he is at this point. We have possession of Paris, and have a party reconnoitering Ashby's Gap. It is impossible to tell yet whether the enemy is in force in the gap or not. He is not at the entrance. Averell is at Piedmont with his brigade. Headquarters to-night will be at Carter's farm, on the road about midway between Union and Upperville. Please hold your available force in readiness to move if ordered. When ordered to move, bring up the Forty-fourth New York, unless ordered to the contrary.
A. V. COLBURN,
Assistant Adjutant-General.
(Series 1, Volume XIX/ Part 2, Book 28, Pages 532, 543).