XVII.

[Indorsement Numbers 2.]

The services detailed in this report having been performed while General Forrest was under my immediate command and General Floyd being out of service and inaccessible and General A. S. Johnston being dead, I transmit the report direct to the War Department, through the Adjutant-General.

GID. J. PILLOW,

Brigadier-General, C. S. Army.

Numbers 72. Report of Lieutenant Colonel Milton A. Haynes, C. S. Army, Chief of Tennessee Corps of Artillery.

RICHMOND, VA., March 24, 1862.

SIR: By direction of the honorable Secretary of War I have the honor to make the following report in regard to the defense of Fort Donelson, on February 12, &c.:

On January 15 General L. Polk ordered me to report to Brigadier-General Tilghman, for the purpose of organizing the artillery defenses of Forts Henry and Donelson, which order I obeyed by reporting on the 16th to General tilghman in person at Fort Henry, who immediately sent me to Fort Donelson. That post was then under the command of Colonel J. W. Head, Tennessee volunteers, with a force of three newlyraised regiments and one company of light artillery. Two companies of volunteer infantry were detailed to act as artillerists, under Captains Beaumont and Bidwell. These companies and Captain Manye's light battery were by me at once organized into a battalion, and General Polk, in response to a telegraphic dispatch, sent two lieutenants, viz, Martin and McDaniel, of the artillery, to report to me for duty, both well versed in the management of heavy artillery. these officers drilled and instructed the men daily, and under my own eye they were trained in firing their guns at targets at 1,000, 1,500, and 2,000 yards, and the ranges of the guns were explained to them. At the same time every man in the battalion fit for duty worked daily in putting the battery, embrasures, magazines, &c., in order.

A new bomb-proof magazine, of capacity to hold 100 rounds for ten guns, was rapidly constructed, under the direction of Captain Beaumont and Lieutenant Bedford, which was immediately connected with the battery by a covered way, also bomb-proof.

Under the direction of Captain J. P. Shuster, formerly of the U. S. Navy, but now on artillery duty with me, the General Johnston's order, the shot and shells were distributed at the pieces, the ammunition, &c., placed in the magazine, and each man assigned to his post, and his especial duty explained to him in case of an engagement.

The entire armament of the fort at that time was ten 32-pounder guns (two of them ship carronades), one 8-inch howitzer, two nondescript 9-pounders, one 10-inch columbiad, and one rifled gun throwing a conical shell of 128 pounds. The columbiad had been mounted about January 25, but, upon trial, its recoil threw the gun back against the hunters, throwing the chassis off the pintle, and seriously damaging the iron barbette carriage. In this condition it was (like the one at Fort Henry) useless. To remedy this defect I had it dismounted, and sent a com-