The fuses in a number of instances are imperfect in several batteries; as fast as they can be made others are supplied. The two mortars have but 70 shells between them. I have ordered an additional supply to the fort, and have recommended two 12-pounder field howitzers to be placed so as to flank the ditch.

6th. Fort Jackson [Ga.] has one 32-pounder navy guns (rifled); five 32-pounder navy guns; three 18-pounder guns. They are in good order, and are supplied, or being supplied, with the necessary implements, &c. Each gun has about 60 rounds.

7th. Battery on Green Island has one 10-inch rifled gun (caliber 6.4); one 10-inch columbiad; two 8-inch columbiads; two 42-pounder guns; four 32-pounder guns. The rifle gun has just been mounted. I fired from it, and with 9 1/2 deg. elevation attained a range of about 1 3/4 miles. the guns and carriages work extremely well; they have everything to make their fire effective. The battery is supplied with about 60 rounds to a gun; has a portable shot-furnace, which I think too small for this point.

8th. Thunderbolt battery has one 8-inch gun (columbiad); three 18-pounder guns. The battery is in good order, and has about 50 rounds to a gun.

The batteries in the neighborhood of Savannah are well served, and with the allowance of ammunition will do very effective service.

I have advised in every case the adoption of ricochet firing. This, if the guns are not fired too rapidly, will, in my opinion, enable all the batteries to make a good defense against shipping. To make the men more deliberate, particularly in the commencement of an action, the gunners should not be permitted to fire but a certain number of rounds in an hour, and the loading be by "detail."

There has been some trouble in firing shell from several of the batteries, the fuses in some instances were imperfect, and the fuse plugs improperly driven in others, I have made arrangements for a new supply of fuses as rapidly as they can be supplied at the Augusta Arsenal, and have given instructions so as to insure the proper loading of shells, &c.

Some of the regiments on the coast are armed with shot-guns and sporting rifles. They have little or no ammunition. I propose to put up for the shot-guns a blank cartridge, to fire a small linen bag containing twelve buck-shot.

I requested the State Ordnance Officer to give me the calibers of the rifles, to make fizzed ammunition for them. I will furnish each regiment with a caliber gauge, and it will enable them to furnish me with the kind and quantity of cartridges required.

Fire and light balls, rockets, fuses, port-fires, fixed ammunition and cannot powder, implements and gun carriages, are required most at present. These I have been engaged on at the Augusta Arsenal, and I will repair thither and push the force employed there as much as possible in supplying the above deficiency. I find it necessary to be there to superintend the works in construction, as there in no one there of sufficient experience in artillery or ordnance duties ot direct matters.

In an order from the Ordnance Officer, received in October, I was directed to obtain reports from all the batteries along the coast of Georgia and Florida as far as Apalachicola, with the view of furnishing those batteries with ordnance and ordnance stores. some of these reports have been received, and I will prepare the arsenal to supply their wants.

In conclusion, I will state that the powder mills at the arsenal have been delayed in their work. On my return there I will work them at