officer who, an acquaintance of more than twenty years assures me, is without a superior either in our own or any other service.

To Acting Brigadier General W. A. Gillmore, captain of engineers, the highest praise is due for the exercise of his great professional skill and judgment and his laborious industry in arranging and personally superintending all the general preparations and all the details of the actual siege, which have resulted so successfully, showing how eminently worthy of the position and rank in which his previous commander, General Sherman, had placed him, as far as was in his power, and which rank I would respectfully ask your interest for the confirmation of by the President. Captain Pelouze, acting inspector-general of the department; Captain Turner, chief commissary of the department; Lieutenant Porter, of the U. S. Ordnance Department, and Lieutenant Wilson, Topographical Engineers, all in charge of batteries, rendered most zealous and efficient service, which their previous military education has so well fitted them for. Lieutenant P. H. O'Rorke, of the U. S. Engineers, acting assistant engineer to General Gillmore, was also most energetic and useful.

Of your own department staff I had the pleasure of noticing repeatedly under the fire most actively engaged Major Halpine, assistant adjutant-general; Lieutenant Smith, acting assistant adjutant-general; Major Hough, most especially zealous; Major Wright; Captains Thompson and Dole; and Lieutenants Stockton, Hay, and Kinzie, your aides, not only complying with you own directions, but ready to aid me at all times when needed.

Lieutenant-Colonel Hall, of the Volunteer Regiment, deserves most special commendation for his activity, zeal, and general usefulness at all times, by night and by day, by which he constantly rendered most valuable services, as did the battalion of his fine regiment during the siege and previously; and Captain McArthur, of the Eight Maine Regiment, being highly praised by different officers, who witnessed his successful management of his men at the batteries, deserves my commendation.

The companies of the Third Rhode Island Artillery, under Captain Tourtellott, served their guns most efficiently; and the Seventh Connecticut Regiment, under Colonel Terry, very ably manned the batteries which they had most laboriously constructed, so thai designated them (as I was pleasant to find had been, unknown to me, the previous selection of General Gillmore) for the honor of being the first to garrison the surrendered fort.

Of my personal staff, my senior aide, Lieutenant A. B. Ely, acting assistant adjutant-general, was constantly with me when not occupied otherwise by my direction, still showing most eminently every qualification, as he had done previously, for the responsible position for which I had selected him, and Lieutenant S. N. Benham, my junior aide, and H. F. Hawkes, acting aide, were ready and prompt in the discharge of their duties. Colonel Serrell, of the Volunteer Engineer Regiment, acting temporarily on my staff, showed great zeal and activity throughout the action.

I would respectfully recommend, in relation to the commander of the garrison of the fort, Colonel Charles H. Olmstead, whose gallant conduct as an enemy and whose courtesy as a gentleman are entitled to all consideration, that, should you deem it proper, the courtesy of the return of his own sword should be extended to him. His defense, I would remark, was continued until almost the latest limit possible, for a few hours more of our fire would, to all appearance, have sufficed for the destruction of the magazine and a larger portion of the fort, while another day would,