Unknown to Edvin M. Stanton, November 8, 1865

Secretary of War:

Sir: I have the honor to submit the annual report of operations of the Quartermaster’s Department during the fiscal year ending 30th of June, 1865:

On the 1st of July, 1864, the balance of appropriation in the TreasAppIppriitirfriscal’yeaV’endin^^^ 30th of JuneVisOS 199,’ 250,’ 000.

Appropriatfon’fOT^fiscafyea?^ SOtli of June, 1866 . 168,500,000.00 Requisitions on Treasury in fiscal year ending 30th of June, 1865. 431,706,057.44

Balance remaining 30th of June, 1865 – – – – 27, 924, 847.

A financial statement in detail will be found in a table at the end of this report.

This department is charged with the duty of providing means of transportation by land and water for all the troops and for all the material of war. It furnishes the horses for artillery and cavalry and the horses and mules of the wagon trains; provides and supplies tents, camp and garrison equipage, forage, lumber, and all materials for camps and for shelter of the troops. It builds barracks, hospi¬ tals, and store-houses; provides wagons and ambulances, harness except for cavalry and artillery horses; builds or charters ships and steainers, docks, and wharves; constructs and repairs roads, railroads and their bridges ; clothes the Army, and is charged generally with the payment of all expenses attending military operations not assigned by law or regulation to some other department.

While the Ordnance Department procures and issues arms and Subsistence Department supplies provisions, and the JV^dical Department medical and hospital stores, the Quartermas¬ ter s Department is called upon to transport the stores of all these depots to the camps, upon the march, and to the battle-field, where they are finally issued to the troops.

These duties have been efficiently performed during the year In the last, as in former years of the war, under the energetic and liberal administration of the War Department, the wants of the troops have been regularly supplied, their comfort, health, and efficiencv have been amply and regularly provided for. The Army itself does justice to the wise and enlarged administration which has enabled it to successfully in a field of warfare constantly widening.

Atlanta, the key of the rebel defense, was secured after a campaign involving a line of operations of 300 miles in length, maintained for a hostile country so effectually as to enable an army of 90,000 inen, with over 40,000 animals, to subsist not only while advancing but, what is much more difficult, while laying siege for weeks to that advanced position.

The enemy’s army, driven from Atlanta, but still formidable in numbers and in courage, threw itself upon this long line of operations–two slender rods of iron, crossing wide rivers, winding through mountain gorges, plunging under the mountain ranges, and

enterprising enemy, favored by the thick forests which bordered the railroad throughout nearlv Its whole extent.

The g^^ards of the posts upon the line of communication did their auty and the Railroad Construction Corps of this department, thoroughly organized, strong in numbers, in skill, and in discipline, S'”® r If railroads. New engines from the worktw / replaced those which torpedoes or broken rails w rorn the track. Trains loaded with timber, with iron, with water and fuel for the engines, preceded the trains of subsistence

was r^-I^tablished communication broken before it

desperate garrison of Atlanta w 1 of communication. The railroad was

day to its full capacity; supplies for a new camCnhis^storf poured into Atlanta. All

the rear enfeebled men were sent by railroad to

Inarmu ‘ *^® General Sherman, with its 3,000 wagons full

^®®®”iPanied by droves Sf many in the ‘®r’ t)y the return of those who, disabled

n the earlier events of the campaign, had been recruited in the hospitals of Nashville, 300 miles to the rear, and forwarded by rail¬ road to resume their places in its ranks, marched out of Atlanta, blew up that depot, destroyed all the railroads which made that city of value in the war, and bent its steps toward the ocean.

In no other country have railroads been brought to perform so important a part in the operations of war. Scarce in any other country could be found the workmen to perform the feats of construc¬ tion which have illustrated this campaign.

At no time during the march from Chattanooga to Atlanta were the railroad trains five days behind the general commanding

The reconstruction of the bridges over the Etowah and the Chat¬ tahoochee are unparalleled feats of military construction. ,

The Etowah bridge, 625 feet long, 75 feet high, was burned by the rebels, and was rebuilt by the labor of 600 men of the Construction

The Chattahoochee bridge, six miles from Atlanta, is 740 feet long and 90 feet high, and was built in four and a half days by 600 men of

the Construction Corps. -p

The army under General Sherman moved southeast from Atlanta, ic plunged into the forests and sands of Georgia and was lost to our view. The rebel army moved into Tennessee and advanced upon Nashville, to be dashed in pieces against the army of Ma3or-General Thomas, and thus perished the last great army of the rebellion in the central South and West, east of the Mississippi. +

The rebel press reported defeats, disasters, repulses to the army, with which we had no communication. No anxiety as to their fate oppressed the minds of those who had in the War Department directed the measures and provisions for their equipment for this bold and decisive march. A bare possibility that, by the abandonment of all eastern positions, the rebel Army of Virginia might throw itself across Sherman’s path, induced the department to order supplies to Pensacola, to relieve any immediate wants should the army be obliged to move southward; but the great work of preparation to meet and refit this army upon the southeastern Atlantic Coast was at once

All this was done in the dead of winter. Light-draft, frail river steamers trusted themselves, under daring Yankee captains and crews, to the storms of the stormiest coast of the world, all arrived safely at their destination. And here let me pay a tribute to those gallant seamen of the merchant shipping of the Nation, who in war entered its transport fleet. No service has been so difficult or so tedious— none so dangerous as to discourage or to daunt them.

No call for volunteers has ever failed to meet a ready response, whether to tempt the shoals and storms of a

hidden and mysterious dangers of the dark bayous of the South,

strewn with torpedoes by the devilish ingenuity

own military and naval service, or to run in frafl river

the batteries of the Potomac, the James and the P®™!’®®:

more formidable works of Vicksburg. Urged by the spirit of adven ture, supported by the patriotism of freemen, they have always stood ready, and have cheerfully obeyed every order, incurred every risk.

On the 13th of December Fort McAllister fell before the assault of General Sherman’s veterans. The transport fleet was ordered at once to the mouths of the Ogeechee and of the Savannah. The city of Savannah was carried within a few days, and a wrecking party, then employed upon the coast of Florida, with all the ingenious equipment which modern science has contrived for submarine operations, was towed by a steamer to the Savannah River and set to work to remove the formidable obstacles to its navigation. These for four years seemed to have employed all the ingenuity and mechanical skill of the people, who had torn up the pavements of their commercial streets to supply material to obstruct the channels of their harbor.

In a few days a passage was cleared, and the steamers and vessels of the transport fleet discharged their cargoes at the long-disused and dilapidated wharves of Savannah, and sailed for the North richly freighted with captured cotton.

On the 22d of January General Sherman again moved northward.

A division of the Railroad Construction Corps had been ordered from the Tennessee to the Savannah to meet him. It had crossed the Alleghanies in midwinter and was promptly at the rendezvous with men and officers and all tools, materials, and machinery for rebuilding the railroads of the coast.

It was decided not to operate directly against Charleston, the great stronghold of the rebellion, which had for four years defied our ships and the forces we could spare for the siege. The wiser and more daring plan of marching inland, cutting off its means of supply, cap¬ turing the capital, and devastating the agricultural portion of the State, was pursued.

Charleston soon fell and the Construction Corps was moved to Morehead City, there to open up the railroad from the harbor of Beaufort, N. C., toward Kinston, at which point General Sherman, when I parted from him in January — his army reclad, reshod, supplied, and ready to resume its march — told me to look out for him next.

His chief quartermaster. General Easton, who had accompanied the army in its march from Chattanooga to Savannah, remained on the coast, taking charge of the fleet loaded with supplies. The fleet and ppplies were transferred to the harbor of Beaufort. Fort Fisher fell in January and the Cape Fear River was opened to our transports. The troops which had captured, with the aid of the navy, the defenses at the mouth of this river, re-enforced by the Twenty-third Army Corps, which in January was transferred from the Tennessee to the Atlantic, captured Wilmington and advanced toward Goldsborough. The two railroads, each ninety-five miles in length, from Wilmington and from Morehead City to Goldsborough, were repaired by the Con¬ struction Corps. They were stocked with cars and engines, and when the Right Wing of General Sherman’s army entered Goldsborough on the 22d of March it met supplies of provisions brought by the railroads from the transport fleet on the coast, and found Golds¬ borough occupied by a corps which on the 15th of January had been encamped on the banks of the Tennessee.

Again was the army supplied with full equipment of clothing, shoes, and of all the various articles of necessity for itself and its trains, worn out in the long march from Savannah, and by the 10th ot April, the appointed day, fully equipped, it moved against the enemy at Raleigh. > & march as well as for siege was constantly kept in the highest state I of efficiency. The country in which they lay furnished no supplies, , and food and forage and all stores were brought by rail and by sea j from the North and Northwest. The shipments of forage alone to the ! armies on the James averaged over $1,000,000 per month throughout the winter.

The tables at the end of this report give information as to the strength of the fieet and the magnitude of the operations involved in the supply from distant ports of an army over 100,000 in strength, with at times over 5,000 wagons to keep in repair and over 65,000 animals, horses, and mules to be fed.

From the depots in the W est, under the general direction of Bvt. Maj. Gen. Robert Allen, senior quartermaster in the Mississippi Valley, the wants of the armies on the Tennessee, the Cumberland, the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Arkansas, and the Gulf of Mexico were supplied.

The Northwest was the store-house from which were drawn subsist¬ ence, forage, and all other material which, by steam-boats and rail¬ road trains, were distributed to the posts.

Lists of steamers employed on the Atlantic, upon the Gulf, and -upon the W estern rivers are attached to this report.

The transport fleet exceeded 1,000 vessels of every variety of con¬ struction, impelled by sail or steam. Details of this fleet and its cost will be found in another part of this report.

Great movements of troops continued to be made. The army of General Thomas, having dispersed the rebel army in the campaign which culminated in the battle of Nashville, on the 15th and 16th of December, 1864, and the pursuit which followed it, was divided. The Twenty-third Corps, under General Schofield, 15,000 strong, was in January, as hereinafter detailed, transported to the coast of North Carolina to co-operate with General Sherman, expected at Kinston. The Sixteenth Corps, under General A. J. Smith, 17,000 strong, Avith artillery and baggage trains, was sent to New Orleans to co-operate with the troops then under General Canby in the reduction of Mobile.

The cavalry, under Major-General Wilson, was refitted, remounted, equipped, and launched into the interior of Alabama to capture the principal interior cities of Alabama and Georgia. Selma, Montgomery, Columbus, and Macon fell before them.

In all these movements the troops were kept well supplied with the necessary material. Horses, forage, food, and clothing were promptly delivered at the appointed rendezvous and depots, and steamers were ready on river and coast to move the troops and their supplies promptly.

During the whole year — I believe I may say during the whole war — no movement was delayed, no enterprise failed, for want of means f of transportation or the supplies required from the Quartermaster’s! Department.

Officers were sent to inspect the various depots and posts to report what stores should be sold and what preserved. Stringent orders were issued directing reductions in purchases, in lists of persons employed ordering the sale of surplus material,the reduction of the strength of the trams, the sale of all surplus animals of the cavalry, artillery, and trams, and the discharge or sale of transports not needed for the returning troops. Reports in detail herewith contain such information as to these operations as can be collected at this time and embraced within the limits of this report.

The examination, collation, and analysis of the records of this departwftwf ^ ”” complete. The material is abundant, and 1 propose, if cu ^11 approbation, to establish a board of officers whose business

official reports full statistics of the vast four years, have taxed the fullest ergies of every officer of ability and experience in this department, iffioo accomplished, the record is in possession of the

* *1*^® labors of execution have not left leisure for that examcomparison of the records which is necessary for a full

Lt™ operations of this department during the four

years oi war.

^ make nominal report of

hk important and responsible positions in

*eir^meritf!n^ the prev^us year, and to call attention to

ihrnromoJL n- ^ave received

iio’hi’v ® which they have so well deserved, and which they so CP T a J, ® y®®Snition by their Government of faithful servhe recopition of the service and success of

e department under my control thus given to its officers.

he duties has not materially varied during lade fhPTn If fu^^^ positions m which their respective qualities I laae them of the greatest service to their country.

ing quartermaster in the Valley of the Mississippi. His duties have remained the same as during the previous years. His annual report is herewith. Had it been more full in detail it would have given a better idea of the magnitude of his responsibilities, his labors, and his merits. There passed through his hands during the fiscal year $33,933,646.45.

Bvt. Maj. Gen. Rufus Ingalls continued in the field to control the service of the quartermaster’s department with the armies operating under Lieutenant-General Grant against Richmond.

The admirable manner in which the duties of his post were per formed is shown in the efficiency of the operations which supplied the troops during the long siege and the rapid marches which, after the enemy was driven from his works, resulted in the capture of hit entire army. The disbursements have been (under his direction’ 11,636,759.08, principally for wages of workmen. The supplies foi this army were purchased under direction of this office and shippec to it from the depots at the North, as required.

Bvt. Maj. Gen. D. H. Rucker has continued in charge of the grea depot of Washington, the depot through which a great part of tin supplies of the armies before Richmond and upon the Atlantic Coas passed. Here the animals and the clothing for these armies were col lected. To this point their worn-out and disabled animals and equipj ment were returned for recuperation or repair, or to be disposed o and replaced. s

Upon this depot, after the fall of Richmond, 250,000 troops wen concentrated, and here were made all the arrangements for their trans portation to the West and North before their final dispersion. Th’ expenditures of the year under his direction have been $8,822,065.33 the great base of supplies of the armies of Sherman and Thomas He is now supervising quartermaster of the Military Division of th Tennessee, and is engaged in the supply of the troops still quartered in the South and in returning them as discharged to their homes and in disposing of the vast accumulation of stores no longer neede< since the cessation of hostilities and consequent reduction of th

partment of the Ohio, assisted by Colonel Moulton, has been in charg of the operations of the department at the important depot of Cir cinnati, which has furnished nearly one-third of the clothing for th armies of the United States. He has received and distributed t other officers or disbursed during the year $17,402,501.95.

Bvt. Brig. Gen. G. H. Grosman, who had been on duty in Philade phia from the 30th of August, 1861, to the 24th of August, 1864, i charge of the Philadelphia depot and the providing of clothing an equipage, was then temporarily relieved by Col. A. J. Perry, chief c the division of clothing and equipage. He has since been engage in preparing a manual of the service of the Quartermaster s Depar ment, intended to fix the forms, sizes, and construction and qualitit of the various articles of equipment which are supplied by the Qua termaster’s Department, in order that the experience gained in a these details may not be lost, but may be at hand to instruct th officers of the department in future operations. The records an etails of these models should be preserved. They have enabled ar armies to make unexampled marches with less suffering, privaon, sickness, and loss than we find recorded in the history of the impaigns of other nations. His disbursements have been during: le year $6,274,278.55. ^

Bvt. Brig. Gen. D. H. Vinton has continued at the head of the epot of clothing and equipage at New York. No officer has more loroughly and efficiently performed his duty. He has received and upended $34,637,511.11.

Bvt. Brig. Gen. L. C. Easton, chief quartermaster of the army of eneral Sherman, accompanied that army in its campaign from Chatinooga, and during the siege of Atlanta superintended its outfit for id accompanied its march to the sea. At Savannah he took charge ■ the transport fleet and of the stores sent to meet the army on the )ast, conducted them to the coast of North Carolina, and sent forard the supplies which, by the 10th of April, enabled it again to arch against the rebels at Raleigh. After the dispersion and reducm of the army he was assigned to duty as chief quartermaster at e headquarters of the major-general commanding the Military ivision of the Mississippi, with his post at Saint Louis, where he exerses a general supervision and control. He has received and counted for $981,822.27.

Bvt. Brig. Gen. Charles Thomas, assistant quartermaster-general, LS aided me in the management of the business of this office, havg charge of the finances and accounts of the office.

Bvt. Brig. Gen. William Myers, as chief assistant to General Robert lien in the Mississippi Valley, has been in charge of the depot at .int Louis. His responsibilities have been great and have been 3t to the satisfaction and approbation of his senior officers. Genal Allen, in his report, speaks of him in the highest terms. He ports the receipt and expenditure or transfer of $49,871,975.35.

Bvt. Brig. Gen. Stewart Van Vliet has continued at New York in arge of the operations of the department at that important post, s disbursements and transfers during the year have reached the m of $20,170,162.60.

Col. C. W. Moulton has been, during a portion of the fiscal year, charge of the clothing and equipage depot at Cincinnati. He reports

Bvt. Brig. Gen. George S. Dodge, chief quartermaster of the Army the James, accompanied the naval and military expedition which uced Fort Fisher, on the coast of North Carolina. He displayed 3at energy and skill in disembarking upon an open coast men and iterial for the siege and assault of that formidable work, and was 3cially rewarded by brevet promotion for signal services on that ^asion. He has since been actively employed in extensive inspecns, both North and South, which have been most efficiently per¬ med and have aided this department in enforcing great reductions expenditure. He is a most deserving officer.

I^ol. William W. McKim, for some time in charge of the depot of icinnati, has been in charge of the depot at Philadelphia, including i operations of the great depot of clothing and equipage at the luylkill Arsenal, since the 15th of February last. He is a most officer. He reports an expenditure during the

The depot of Baltimore has been in charge of Col R. M. Newport ce the 24th of September, 1864. In the earlier part of the fiscal year

220 it was under charge of Maj. C. W. Thomas, Quartermaster’s Depai ment. Colonel Newport’s expenditures and transfers are reported $8,167,971.73.

Col. S. B. Holabird has continued on duty at New Orleans, whe his long experience and his business capacity have made his servi most valuable. He accompanied the army of General Banks to Loi siana when that officer first assumed command in the Southwest, a has always been zealous and successful in the discharge of the hea duties which have been imposed upon him. His receipts, transfei and expenditures during the year were $15,290,396.67.

Col. C. G. Sawtelle, as chief quartermaster of the command, first General Canby, and lately of the troops and military division unc Major-General Sheridan, has rendered most valuable service, chief quartermaster of General Canby’s army, he directed the op’ ations of the quartermaster’s department in the movements agaii Mobile. After the fall of Mobile, and the assignment of Major-G( eral Sheridan to command in the Southwest, he was attached to 1 staff as chief quartermaster of the military division, and forward the army which was sent from New Orleans to Texas, including t later movements of the Twenty-fifth Army Corps, which, embarki on the James, rendezvoused on the northern coast of the Gulf Mexico, before proceeding to Texas. He reports the receipt, tra: fer, and expenditure during the fiscal year of $684,857.45.

The principal disbursements in the command to which he is attacl have been made b}^ officers at depots.

The limits of this report will not permit me to notice here all 1 officers of the department who have held important positions duri the extended operations of the last year of this most active and eve ful war. I mention the names merely of some of the officers wh< merits have promoted them to most important positions. .

Lists of officers of the Quartermaster’s Department who have ser^j as chief quartermasters of armies, of great territorial divisions, a in charge of important depots, and of those who have been specie noted in the records received at this office for good service, ;j attached to this report.

The officers who have been my personal assistants in charge of several divisions of this office are noticed in referring to the brand of the service in which they have had special control.

The purchase and supply of the animals of the Army pertains the First Division of this office, of which Bvt. Brig. Gen. James Ekin, of the Quartermaster’s Department, has charge. He reports

Purchases of cavalry horses during the year ending June 30, 1865 – 141,

Total from January 1, 1864, to May 9, 1865, at which time purchases ceased. 193, Of artillery horses, from September 1, 1864, to June 30, 1865, purchases

having ceased May 9 – – –

Of mules, from July 1, 1864, to June 30, 1865, purchases having ceased May 9 – – – – – – –

The earlier purchases of horses delivered in Washington at beginning of the war were at $125. Subsequently, for a time, hor? were delivered here as low as $100. The price gradually advane until the close of the war.

The prices of cavalry horses during the last fiscal year have varied

from – – – –

Of artillery horses – – – – –

Of mules . . . . .

I hore have been sold at the depots since January 1, 1864, of cavalry

horses _ _ _ _ _

‘here have died at these depots _ ‘ ” ] ] ‘

artillery horses reported as having died at the’ dopotsV September ‘l’

lules sold September 1 , 1864, to June 30, i865_ .

)ied in depots in same time _ _ ] ] ] ^

The deaths reported occurred at depots principally among animals ent in from the field as broken down and unserviceable.

The destruction in the field was greater, probably nearly equaling he number supplied by purchase and capture, as neither the trains or the cavalry of the armies have been materially increased durinole last year of the war, and the purchases have been almost entirelv D supply losses.

The issues of cavalry horses to the Army of the Shenandoah, actively Qgaged under Major-General Sheridan, have been at the rate of iree remounts per annum. The service of a cavalry horse under an aterprising commander has therefore averaged only four months.

Of the animals which are sent to the depots for recuperation about ) per cent, recovered, and, becoming serviceable, have again been sued. ®

7,336 reported, to October 17, and since ay B, 18b5, and in accordance with General Orders, No. 28 of the uartermaster-General’s Office, dated May 8, 1865, 53,794 horses and ,516 mules, for the sum of $6,107,618.14. It is probable that when e tull returns are received the total amount of sales from May 8 to 3tober 17 will prove to exceed $7,000,000.

With few exceptions these sales have been made by persons iployed at fixed daily rates by the Quartermaster’s Department. In lew^ cases officers who have failed to receive the general order of the lartermaster-General prescribing this mode of sale have employed 3al auctioneers at various rates of compensation. The results in )st cases have been less satisfactory than when the sales have been ide in the first mode, and such sales have given rise to some comimts of excessive fees. All the officers of the department now, it General Orders, No. 42, Quarterniaster-GenAi s Office, 1865, and understand their duty in this respect.

eneral Ekin names the officers who have acted under his orders in received during the fiscal year _ $8,501,078.84 dnaining to his credit June 30, 1865 _ _ _ _ _ 486,044.99

quartermasters for purchase of horses, submitted to nu approved by him during the year:

For horsptj

For mules – 23,600,456.66 Total

Under the law of July 4, 1864, 4,174 claims for animals have be filed in the First Division of the Quartermaster-General’s Office; these 2,792 have been acted on, leaving 1,382 not acted on. T business is increasing rapidly.

General Ekin states, succinctly, some of the difficulties attend just decisions upon these claims. Generally when the animals hi been taken by officers of this department, reference to the offic records shows that they have been properly reported and accounted f

But when ofiicers’ papers have been captured by the enemy destroyed, and where the seizure has been made by officers not of Quartermaster’s Department, as many of the officers have been ( charged from the service, it is difficult to communicate with them letter, and to ascertain whether the signatures and memorand receipts offered in evidence are true or forged. To arrive at cert conclusions upon evidence entirely ex parte, and without cross-exa ination, is impossible, and this department will be unable to arriv( that conviction necessary to enable it to report many claims, some them no doubt just, without some further action. It maj^ afte time, become expedient to create boards of officers to visit the loc{ ties in which most of these claims originate, and there take testiim as to the facts, the truth of the documentary evidence presented, f especially as to the loyalty of the claimants and witnesses. Judg from the papers presented with these claims, there are few pers unable to present certificates of loyalty.

Copies of the more important orders regulating the mode of i chasing and disposing of public animals accompany this report.

They are the result of the experience gained during a great war which the consumption of horses and mules has been very la{ The specifications have been amended from time to time as experief has shown defects.

Under the system which these orders and regulations set forth Army has been well supplied with animals adapted to the milit service. The order, regularity, and abundance of supply, the ( rectness and clearness of the record of this branch of the serv since the organization of the First Division of this office, are n creditable to Bvt. Brig. Gen. James A. Ekin, who has been at its h( The clothing and equipage of the Army are provided by contrf by purchase, and by manufacture at the several principal depf which during the fiscal year have been : i

New York depot, under charge of Bvt. Brig. Gen. D. H. Vinf Quartermaster’s Department.

Philadelphia depot, under charge, successively, of Bvt. Brig. G G. H. Grosman, Col. A. J. Perry, Col. and Bvt. Brig. Gen. H. Bit and Col. W. W. McKim, who is still in charge.

Cincinnati depot, under charge of Bvt. Brig. Gen. Thomas Swoij Col. C. W. Moulton, Col. W. W. McKim, who, on his transfer to If adelphia, was relieved by Col. C. W. Moulton. ‘

Saint Louis depot, under charge of Bvt. Brig. Gen. William My!’ Quartermaster’s Department.

There are several branch depots established at points at whicliii: war had collected many destitute women, either of the families of r i gees or of soldiers, whom employment in making up army clothing relieved from dependence upon public charity.

These depots were supplied with material from the three principal depots of New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, and their oper¬ ations were confined to the making up of such material into garments.

Such depots are established at Quincy, Ill., and Steubenville, Ohio.

The quality of the clothing and equipment furnished to the Army has been excellent; very few complaints of inferior quality have been made, considering the immense quantity of material which has been issued to the troops. The marches made from Atlanta to Savannah, and from Savannah to Goldsborough, by armies which during their marches had no opportunity to replace articles of equipment worn out, are evidence of the good quality of the shoes and clothing with which the Army is supplied.

Of the principal articles of clothing and equipage the following quantities have been purchased and manufactured at the three prin¬ cipal depots during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1865:

Uniform coats _

Uniform jackets _

Uniform trousers _ _ _

Drawers _

Shirts, flannel _

Gireatcoats _

Woolen _

Waterproof _

Canteens _

Hospital tents _

Wedge or common tents.

Shelter tents _ _

Bedsacks _

Regimental colors _

Camp colors _

National colors _

Flags . .

311,597 410, 667 3, 463, 858 3,708,393 3,268,166 873,

Shoes – pairs.. 1,688,017

Stockings – do… 5,684,572

Knapsacks – 958,287

Haversacks _ 1,066,647

Guidons _ 1,293

Spades and shovels _ 150,

Hatchets _ 88,054

Bugles – 3,795

Fifes – 1,400

The stock on hand ready for issue on the 30th of June, 1865, but not transferred to the armies for issue, was :

Uniform coats _ 462,

Uniform j ackets – 504′ 81

Uniform trousers _ . 1, 185

Drawers – 1,166,541

shirts, flannel – 1, 542,

greatcoats – 929,725

Waterproof – 384,975

Blouses – 1,410,059

5hoes – pairs. – 1,582,156

stockings – do. . . 1, 803,

jpades and shovels _ 152,

latchets – 111,247

Knapsacks – 868,578

Haversacks – 522,

Canteens – 845,209

Hospital tents _ 6,121

Wedge or common tents _ 53,

Shelter tents _ 791,

Bedsacks – … 167′ 037

Regimental colors Camp colors .. National colors

Flags _

Guidons _

Picks _

Bugles _

Trumpets _

Drums _

7, 270 7,697 2, 039 103, 228 3,893 3,869 5,865 11,747

pans – 364,

For further details of the supply of clothing, camp and garrison quipage, during the fiscal year, and during the whole war, I resj3ectniiiy refer to the tables accompanying this report. They give infor¬ mation as to the quantities of the various materials purchased, as well

224 as of the articles manufactured therefrom, or purchased ready made, in a compact form and with greater precision than is possible in this narrative.

There have been purchased during the fiscal year —

Cloth and other materials to the value of – $21, 416, 858.

The expenditure for all objects relating to clothing and equipage, including payment of rents, compensation to workmen, clerks, and others, at the principal depots, has been during the year end¬ ing June 30, 1865 . . . . 105, 019, 406.

Two of the tables herewith give approximately the quantities of material and of . ready-made articles of clothing and equipage, which the three principal depots have supplied during the war.

At the commencement of the war the department had but one depot for the supply of clothing and equipage, the Schuylkill Arsenal, at Philadelphia. This was organized for the equipment of an army of 13,000 men. The material was purchased by contract from manu¬ factories, and the clothing, shoes, &c., were made up at the arsenal.

The sudden increase of the Army made it necessary to greatly enlarge the operations of this depot and to establish new ones, and also to accept the aid of State authorities in providing the clothing of the numerous regiments of volunteers organizing in every district in the country. Eight thousand or 10,000 work-people were employed in Philadelphia in the manufacture of clothing and equipage. The new depots established at New York and Cincinnati went into operation early in 1862, under energetic and able officers. Contracts were made for the supply of clothing ready made. The manufacturers of the loyal States were urged to turn their machinery upon army goods. The clothing merchants who had before the war supplied the Southern markets made contracts with the department for the supply of’ ‘ army clothing, and in a few months the industry and manufacturing! power of the country were turned into the new channel, and the diffi-i culties at first experienced in procuring a sufficient supply for the immense army which sprang into being ceased.

The only domestic branch of manufacture which has not shown capacity to supply the Army is that of blankets. The department has been obliged throughout the war to use a considerable proportion of army blankets of foreign manufacture.

The condition of the property stored at the Schuylkill Arsenal at Philadelphia is a source of apprehension. About 120,000,000 of prop¬ erty are in store there, and it is recommended that alterations and additions be made in the buildings, or within the walls, to enable the department to remove much valuable property now stored in tempo¬ rary sheds and exposed to danger from fire into proper fireproof buildings.

The prices of clothing and equipage have constantly advanced dur¬ ing the war. A table of the lowest and highest prices paid accom¬ panies this report. It will be seen that toward the termination of the war the prices of many important articles had more than doubled; of some articles the price has quadrupled.

The Second Division of this office has charge of the provision and distribution of clothing and equipage. It has been under the charge of Col. A. J. Perry, of the Quartermaster’s Department, who has in this office had charge of this branch of its business since the com¬ mencement of the war. He is an officer of rare merit, and I have taker occasion heretofore to ask that he receive promotion as a testimony that his services have been recognized and appreciated by his country as they are by the chief of this department. ^

Although in the active operations of the past four years, and espe¬ cially during the unprecedented movements of the last year very heavy demands have been made upon this branch of the departWnt

at toe’ rSt moment^^'”*^® ” Pl=»ces ami

During the last year large armies have clianged their bases The army of General Sherman from the Tennessee and Ohio to the Atlan tic Coast at Savannah; then again to the harbor of Beaufort N. C seveial hundred miles distant. Yet at each of these new bases this army, from 70,000 to 100,000 strong, found the supplies for a complete new outht ready for issue. Most of the clothing and equipage for

So armies of p 000 to 25,000 men have been during the past year suddenly moved from the Tennessee to the Atlantic; fronAlie Ten¬ nessee to the Gulf Coast; from the James to the Rio Grande; but from none of these new fields and bases of operation, in the midst of these sudden and gigantic movements, has the complaint been made of

supplies which, it is the duty of this department to provide or to transport.

Col George D. Wise, in charge of the Tliird Division of this office

rissed bv ti-ansportation— was embarSutn } ^ absence of most of the clerks and officers, who were ittackonfbeL® the field during the demonstmtion and

DurW this t,W Breckinridge,

issemhled <^*i® necessary steamer transportation was

issembled at City Point and moved to Washington and Baltimore the

‘^ivr™^ Corps in time to meet the advancing enemy at the battles )f the Monocacy and the attack on Washington. The Nineteenth ^rmy Corps was also brought from the Chesapeake, where it was f^t^kp^ sea from New Orleans, and reached Washington in time .affled enemy”^ operations for its defense and in the pursuit of the

During the month of July, also, the army of Major-General Canbv tas moved by sea from New Orleans to Mobile Bay, co-operating with Pm *’^®/®

‘errmadeTut movements of troops by sea

ere made, but a large fleet was constantly employed in suDnlyin»-

he armies before Richmond and the troops at the varioim stEs ong the coast from the Chesapeake to l!^ew Orleans

lan’s aE tTZ* December the approach of General Slieri,es4 to Er « nu m ‘^®®f f® be employed in readitess to supply and reht that array after its long march from Atlanta

IrRMTtheTrr ®4®-i P®o«-ola with supplies to await the hermi44o^han unexpected opposition compel General

: fint^on thfco^^i some

I ->int on the coast of the Carolmas or Georgia.

! 15 R R— SERIES III, VOL V lister by a coup de main, communicated with the naval squadron, the transports were sent round to the mouths of the Ogeechee and Savan¬ nah Rivers, and light-draft steamers, fitted for river and bay service, which had been dispatched upon the first news of his approach, arrived in time to transfer to the river landings the clothing, camp and garrison equipage, quartermaster’s stores, and forage and pro¬ visions which had been of necessity sent in seagoing vessels, both sail and steam, and which were of too heavy draft to enter the Ogee¬ chee or pass through the opening first made in the artificial obstruc¬ tions of the Savannah.

The army was quickly reclothed, reshod, and refitted; its wagons filled with rations and forage.

A large portion of the army was transferred by steamers from the Savannah to Beaufort, S. 0., or Port Royal Harbor, at which place the vessels of heavy draft could land their stores without the labor of

After a short and much-needed rest, the army, re-equipped, left the I coast, and the transports and fieet of light-draft steamers repaired to the harbor of Morehead City, where they awaited the arrival of the troops, who, after a march of 500 miles through a hostile country, without communication with their base of supplies, depending solely upon the stores in their wagons and the resources of the enemy s country for their subsistence, were certain to arrive in a condition to require an entire renewal of their clothing and shoes and a new

supply of provisions. ^ .

When I parted with General Sherman at Savannah on the IJth ot January he told me to look out for him at Kinston, and also to be prepared for him lower down the coast should the rebel Army of \ iiginia, abandoning Richmond, unite with the troops in the Carolinas and succeed in preventing his passage of the Santee.

During the month of December, also, an expedition was embarked at City Point and Fortress Monroe, which made an unsuccessfuJ attempt, in co-operation with the navy, upon Fort Fisher, at the mouth of Cape Fear River. The troops failing to attack were re-embarked and returned to Hampton Roads. The transportation by sea, the landing and return, were successfully performed.

In January the expedition was re-embarked with a larger force and successfully landed above Fort Fisher, which place, with the aid of naval bombardment unexampled in severity, they carried by assault.

The troops of the Twenty-third Army Corps, under General Scho¬ field having borne their part in the campaign in Georgia and Tennes¬ see, after the battle of Nashville, which took place on the 15th aiic 16th of December, and the termination of the pursuit of the rebe army on the Tennessee, were moved by rail and river to Washmgtoi and Baltimore, where, amid many difficulties from the severity of tli( season, ice entirely suspending for a time the navigation of the Poto mac they were embarked on ocean steamers and dispatched to tli( Cape Fear River and to Beaufort, N. C., to move, in co-operation witl the victors of Fort Fisher, upon Wilmington and Kinston, N. C.

In anticipation of the arrival of General Sherman’s army, I tia( ordered to Savannah a portion of the Military Railroad Constructioi Corps. Two divisions of the corps, as organized, with tools and mate rials and officers, were brought from Nashville to Baltimore by rai road. At Baltimore they were re-enforced and embarked on oceai steamers and were promptly at the rendezvous.

As the army moved, however, without depending upon railroad communication, destroying instead of repairing railroads in its marcli, the Construction Corps was transferred to Wilmington and Beaufort Harbor, and the railroads which, starting from Wilmington and Morehead City, meet at Goldsborough were repaired and stocked with engines and cars, either captured or sent from the North.

Two hundred miles of railroad were thus repaired and stocked under the protection of the troops of Generals Schofield and Terry and when, after the battle of Bentonville, the Right Wing of General Sherman s army, under Howard, marched into Goldsborough, on the 22d of March, ragged from their struggles with the thickets and swamps, and blackened by the smoke of the burning forests of Caro¬ lina, they met these railroad trains from the Atlantic loaded with three days rations for their immediate Avants. I met General Sher¬ man at Morehead City on the 25th of March, when he advised me that he desired to moA^e again on the 10th of April.

This army of nearly 100,000 men needed to be entirely reclad and reshod; the troops Avere to be fed while resting, for as soon as the army ceased its march it ceased to supply itself by foraging, and depended upon the supplies from the coast. Nevertheless, on the 7th of April I was able to inform General Sherman that the necessary supplies Avere in his camps.

Every soldier had received a complete outfit of clothing and had been newly shod The wagons were loaded with rations and forage, and each of the 3,000 wagons, Avhose canvas covers had been torn on the march from Chattanooga, was supplied with a new cover The army moved on the appointed day against the enemy, interposing I betAveen it and the Army of the Potomac, then holding the principal rebel army fast behind the lines of Richmond. ^ ^

A tug-boat of this department, under the command of Captain 1 V?’ I’^ached Fayetteville by the Cape Fear River on the

12th of March, and first bore greeting to the Army of the West from their comrades Avhom they had left on the banks of the Tennessee, and who, joined with others of the Army of the Potomac, were then forcing a communication with them from the new base which they sought on the Atlantic Coast. ^

The demands upon the department at this time compelled it to ‘ bt n gradually acquired

‘ that had been built

in the United States to navigate the ocean.

A fleet of powerful propellers, vessels of 900 to 1,100 tons, swift peed of eight to ten knots, had been created during the war, and

‘ Srtoeh the

“‘sistenfe ®nipl0ye

^ 5 “Pejled to anchor on the exposed coast of Carolina, r where they rode out the winter storms.

BetnwV^K^^r^ engines and cars were shipped to

iwere in i 1″ North Carolina, most of which

(iwere on the termination of hostilities sent to the James River to be

borouo-h fllfl rou of General Sherman while at Goldsito snnnfv !.^ I w- railroad, and also to enable the department ‘ his nortU Winton by the shallow waters of North Carolina in I nis northern march, a large number of canal-boats and barges was ing supplies to Kinston bridge, but the greater part of them were released from service by the surrender of the rebel armies and have been returned to the Chesapeake and to their owners or sold.

In all the active movements by sea during the fiscal year, employ¬ ing a fieet in which nearly all the seagoing steamers of the country have been employed, but three vessels have been lost while in the service of this department.

The North America, a chartered side- wheel steamer of the first class, perfectly new, went down in a gale off Cape Hatteras, the Gen¬ eral Lyon was burned, and the Admiral Du Pont was run down at sea.

After the surrender of the rebel armies orders were given to dis¬ charge all the chartered steamers and to sell those which were the j property of the department as fast as they could be spared. Very heavy movements, however, ordered before much progress in the j reduction was made, have delayed the discharge and sale of some of the transports. j

In May the Twenty-fifth Army Corps was ordered from City Point j to Texas. The corps numbered about 25,000 men, with artillery and baggage. Its guns, ambulances, wagons, and harness, subsistence and ammunition, went with it. About 2,000 horses and mules also accompanied it. The greater part of its artillery, cavalry, and team horses were left behind. This movement required a fleet of fifty-seven ocean steamers, one of which made two voyages. The entire tonnage of the fleet was 56,987 tons. The vessels were all provided for a twelve-days’ voyage, consuming 947 tons of coal and 50,000 gallons of water daily. The daily expense of this fleet amounted to $33,311. The vessels were fitted with bunks for the troops, and with stalls for 2,139 horses and mules, which formed part of the expedition. The vessels were all rigidly inspected before sailing, and all reached their \ destination in safety. No accident to any of them has been reported, i A list of the vessels accompanies this report.

While this expedition of 25,000 troops was afloat another, of 7,000 troops, was sent by sea from Washington to Savannah, and 3,000 rebel prisoners were sent from Point Lookout, on the Chesapeake, to Mobile. Besides this large numbers of convalescent and discharged men were then returning from the Southern ports, and recruits were forwarded to the regiments on the coast. !

There were, therefore, more than 30,000 troops and prisoners afloat upon the ocean in steam transports at the same time. The last annual report of this department gives information as to ‘ the army transport fleet owned and employed on the 15th of October, 1864.

This list omitted to give the names of the Western river steamers, : of which the department then owned a large number.

There were in the employment of the department of ocean and lake transportation, in the spring of 1865, owned by the department — steamers, 106; steam-tugs, 29; sailing vessels, 15; barges, 21; total, under charter at that time — steamers, 275; tugs, 91; sailing vessels, i 75; barges, 171; with a tonnage of 191,149 tons.

Total number of vessels employed, 783 ; tonnage, 240,507 tons. Average daily expense of this fleet, $97,500.

On the 1st of July, 1865, the fleet owned consisted of — steamers, i 115; tugs, 23; sail- vessels, 12; barges, 20; tonnage, 55,496 tons. Ihe chartered fleet consisted of — steamers, 177; tug’s 69- sail vessels, 74; barges, 100; tonnage, 138,440 tons. ‘ ‘ ‘

$82 4W vessels, 590; tonnage, 193,936 tons; daily cost.

During the fiscal yeai’ the average size of the transport fleet was _

Steam- tuffs . .

Total .

Its average daily cost was $92,414.

The report of Colonel Wise, who is in charge of this branch of the Quartermaster-General s Office, contains some important observations upon the construction and management of steam ocean transports At the beginning of the war the department was imposed upon. Officers and agents had little experience, and inferior vessels were sometimes chartered, and excessive prices were paid for steamers

chartered from the regular trade, not then entirely and hopelessly broken up by the war. pcicssiy

Stringent measures of reform were adopted ; a scale of prices for the different classes of vessels was fixed by the order of riie Quarter master-General. The examination and^ audit of all accoSitflo; charter of vessels was brought to this office. All charters contained provisions to enable the United States to purchase the vessels at a reasonable price provided that should prove advantageous, and system, order, and regularity were introduced into the service, tni 1 ® of the service, on the reorganization of this office under

the law of the 4th of July, 1864, was assigned to the Third Division the office, under the direction of Col. G. D Wise The safetv efficiency dispatch, and punctuality with which its affairs have been concluctea do him high honor.

The fleet has averaged fmZhant ml*®®” during the year, though the greatest and most impoitant movements were made during the inclement months of the Winter — from January to May.

Very full tables which accompany this report give details in reference to the transport fleet and the operations of the department upon the ocean and upon the waters of the coast. ^

rail and river transportation.

V The service of transportation upon the Western rivers has lieen under the direction of the Fourth Division of this office Uol L. B. Parsons, who had been placed in charge of the Western

pXn^’^of ‘ At preparations for the camdivTsffin nf commenced, was upon the organization of the

held river transportation in this office called to its

omv’ (?f sump the service with great efficiency and econy. Of some of the more important movements his report gives fully into Georgia, have been detailed in the last annual report of this office.

In the course of the war a considerable fieet of river steamers and other vessels had become the property of the department upon the Mississippi and its tributaries, by purchase, by construction, or by capture. A list of the steamers accompanies the report. It contains the names of —

Side-wheel steamers –

Stern-wheel steamers… Center-wheel steamers..

Total steam-boats

Of other vessels the department owned upon those rivers—

Steam-boat hulls _

Model barges _

Gunwale barges _

Small wood barges .

Box barges _

Barges not classified

Metallic boats –

Skiffs _

Sectional docks _

Small flats _

Floating docks _

Total boats and barges of all kinds

Nearly all of these have been advertised for sale. Those Avhich have been constructed or purchased by the department have been or will be sold. Those which have been captured or seized will be turned over to the Treasury Department, to be disposed of under the law, or will be returned to their original owners, if pardoned, and, if so ordered, upon full consideration of their claims.

The agreement made early in the war with a convention of railroad companies has continued in force through all the changes in values [ which the war has brought. The railroad officers have responded to j ever}^ demand of the transportation department of the Government, and by their cordial co-operation with the officers of the Quartermas¬ ter’s Department have made these great movements of troops easy of execution and unexampled in dispatch.

To Brig. Gen. L. B. Parsons, who has been in charge of the Fourth Division of this office, and to Bvt. Col. Alexander Bliss, his assistant, and frequently, in his absence, in charge of the office, and the officers at the various posts and depots, charged with the duty of transportation, great credit is due for the safety, order, and speed with which this immense business has been conducted.

There have been filed in the office of the Fourth Division since its organization 442 claims, amounting to $268,545.02; 202 have been allowed, amounting to $68,712.34; 92 have been referred to the Third Auditor or to disbursing officers for examination and settlement, amounting to $87,462.30; 99 have been rejected, amounting to $60,138.34; 48 await action, amounting to $16,891.04; 1 has been withdrawn, amounting to $5,341.

From the imperfect reports yet received at the office of the Fourth Division the number of passages granted to prisoners and refugees who have been transported by the division during the fiscal year is 356,541, costing over $1,300,000.

General Schofield’s movement from Clifton, on the Tennessee, by the Tennessee River, the Ohio, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, to the Potomac, and thence to the coast of North Carolina, was accom¬ plished in the midst of a very severe winter, during which the navi¬ gation of the Ohio and the Potomac was at times interrupted by ice. Within five days after the movement was decided on in Washington the troops upon the Tennessee, nearly 1,400 miles distant, were embarking. The movement to Washington occupied an average time of only eleven days. It took place during the month of January.

The special report of Colonel Parsons, of the Quartermaster’s Depart¬ ment, Avho was dispatched by the War Department to attend to it personally, accompanies this report; it is an interesting detail of the difficulties overcome, and of the success with which they were surmounted.

On the conclusion of the campaign in Tennessee, while the Twentythird Corps, under General Schofield, was ordered across the Alleghanies, by Washington, to the coast of North Carolina, to co-operate ,with General Sherman, the Sixteenth Corps, under Maj. Gen. A. J. -Smith, was ordered to New Orleans to co-operate with General Canby jin the reduction of Mobile. A fleet of forty steamers was promptly ‘issembled at Eastport, on the Tennessee, below the Muscle Shoals. The entire command, including a brigade of artillery and the Seventh Division of the Cavalry Corps, was embarked on the fleet. It consisted fpi men, 1,038 horses, 2,371 mules, 351 wagons, 83 ambulances.

T he embarkation began on the 5th of February, 1865, and was com¬ peted on the 8th. The fleet sailed on the 9th, and the command irrived at New Orleans on the 23d, having been moved in thirteen lays 1,330 miles.

I The armies of the West and of the Potomac, after the fall of Rich- ^ nond and the surrender of the eastern rebel armies, marched through Washington, were reviewed by the President and Cabinet, and I sncampmg upon the heights surrounding the capital, prepared for heir final dispersion and disbandment.

233,200 men, 12,838 horses, and 4,300,850 iDoiinds of baggage were moved from Washington by the Washington Branch Railroad to the Relay House, where a large portion of them turned westward. The remainder passed through Baltimore, dividing at that city into two streams, one of which moved north through Harrisburg, the other northeast through Philadelphia.

The general instructions of the Quartermaster-General, preparing for this movement, will be found among the papers attached to this report. They designate the routes and prescribe certain precautions and preparations for the comfort and safety of the troops moving by rail.

Of the troops there were returning home for discharge from service 161,403 men, with 4,630 horses, and 1,828,450 pounds baggage, dis¬ tributed as follows :

To the Northeastern States, 28,803 men, 1,307 horses, 287,000 pounds baggage.

To the Middle States, 100,309 men, 2,323 horses, 907,000 pounds baggage.

To the Western States, 32,291 men, 1,000 horses, 634,450 pounds baggage.

The Army of the Tennessee, ordered to move to Louisville, from which place they were, in a few weeks, sent to their homes for dis¬ charge from service, 60,904 men, 2,657 horses, 2,424,000 pounds baggage.

Cavalry ordered West for active service, 10,893 men, 5,757 horses, 308,000 pounds baggage.

Total number in forty days, over the Washington Branch Railroad and the various railroads diverging from the Relay House and from Baltimore, 233,200 men, 12,838 horses, and 4,300,850 pounds baggage.

The Army of the Tennessee, the troops ordered West for active service, and a portion of those ordered to their Western homes fot discharge, passed over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to Parkers burg, its western terminus, on the Ohio River, where boats were pro vided for their march to Louisville, Lawrenceburg, Camp Dennison, and Cincinnati. Between May 27 and July 6, within fortj^days, dur ing twelve of which no troops arrived at Parkersburg from Washing ton, there were moved from that place :

Louisville . .

Saint Lonis . .

Lawrenceburg, Ind . . . Camp Dennison, Ohio Cincinnati .

Total .

In this movement by water ninety-two steam-boats were employee an average of seventeen days and a fraction for each boat, at an aver age compensation of $175 per day each. Each boat consumed on ai average 200 bushels of coal per day.

The total service of all the boats was 1,601 days, costing for charte: $280,175, and consuming 320,200 bushels of bituminous coal, $48,030 Total cost of transportation from Parkersburg by water to various points on the Ohio and to Saint Louis of 96,796 men and 9,896 horses $328,205.

f The same movement if performed by railroad, at the reduced rates at which the railroads serve the Government, would have cost $746,964.

Thus 96,000 men and 10,000 horses were, in the short space of ^rty in the several positions to which they had been ordered.

During these same forty days 233,000 men in all were moved by 0*ailroad from Washington, 96,000 of them to the posts above named; the others were distributed to every hamlet and village of the States north of the Potomac and Ohio Rivers, and restored’to their homes, lithe labor of war over, to return to the pursuits of peaceful industry which they had left at the call of their country in her hour of need.

In all these movements there have been few accidents, and the safety and economy of the service are not less noticeable than its speed.

Had the armies marched to their several places of destination the pay of the men, the subsistence of men and animals, the maintenance lof the immense trains which would have accompanied them, consider¬ ing the time which the march would have consumed, would have far exceeded the cost of this rapid movement by rail and river.

It is understood that since the close of the war 800,000 men have been safely brought back from the rebellious districts, transported by dhis department to the several camps of discharge established in every doyal State, and finally sent to their homes. Many of these men came from Texas and the Gulf Coast; others from the territories of all the dately rebellious States.

Such a movement is unexampled. It illustrates the resources of dhe country for the operations of war, and the great advantages it possesses in its system of ‘navigable rivers and its 40,000 miles of radroads.

^ In the winter of 1863, when the rebel armies were driven back from Hiattanooga, the immediate repair and almost total reconstruction of lie track of the railway from Nashville to Chattanooga became an mperative necessity.

! positions taken -up by the troops along the line of the Tennes¬

see River, for the winter, required for their supply that the railroads

Decatur to beyond Knoxville iihould also be repaired and equipped. Bridges were rebuilt; new tnd heavier iron was laid down upon the road from Nashville to .hattanooga; locomotives and cars in great numbers were nianufacured at the North and transported to the scene of active operations.

As the Louisville and Nashville Railroad proved insufficient for the leavy traffic thrown upon it, and was sometimes cut by guerrillas, the >lashville and Northwestern Railroad, from Nashville to Johnson ville m the Tennessee River, was repaired, completed, and opened to trade! ^-iiis afforded a new avenue by which the products of the Northwest . •’ere transported to the base of operations at Nashville, the Tennesee River being navigable for light-draft boats from the Ohio to ohnsonville.

Seventeen hundred and sixty-nine miles of military railways were ; I one time repaired, maintained, stocked, and operated by the agents \ under the energetic supervision of Bvt. Brig. Gen.

t t manager of military railways of the United

234 In the repair of so many miles of railway great quantities of iron, burned and twisted by the contending forces, both of which, on occa¬ sion, destroyed railroads which they were obliged to abandon, came into our possession.

To make this iron serviceable in the repair of the railroads toward Atlanta and to the Gulf, should the same stubborn resistance be offered beyond Atlanta as was met with on the advance to that place, I directed the completion of an unfinished rolling-mill captured at Chattanooga,

For local military reasons Major-General Thomas required that th( mill should be constructed within the intrenchment of the city of Chat’ tanooga, instead of on the foundations of the mill, some two miles from that town. A rolling-mill capable of rerolling fifty tons of rail road iron per day was constructed and put in operation. It utilized a large quantity of iron taken from the lines of Southern railroads and was of important aid in restoring the railroad communicatioi between Chattanooga and Atlanta, broken up

by order of Genera