officer, who has given me great satisfaction in the discharge of his duties.

On the 12th instant Batteries Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5 were ready for action the guns and calibers being distributed according to report Numbers 2, already furnished. Battery Numbers 1 now began to be fairly under water; it rose up to 12-inches above the platform. The powder magazine was then found to be leaky, and the ammunition had to be kept on the parapet. The powder magazine of the other four batteries was not completed, but would be so on the next day. We had then twenty-two guns mounted, and the batteries ready for action on the bend, and twenty-six on the island.

The herculean labor of mounting that number of guns in so short a time, of fitting the carriages, repairing them as well as the chassis, of building batteries, with traverses between each gun, was accomplished during the incredibly short space of time of twelve days by our small force. I can say with pride that 1,000 men performed in that time more and better work than was ever done at Columbus in three months, and by their incessant and assiduous labor have fulfilled their task of protecting the great inland sea leading into the very heart of their country. With forty-eight guns and the ten guns of the floating battery (now removed in the upper channel, at Island Numbers 10) we could stop all the fleets of the enemy, however or numerous.

At that time I caused all the companies to removed their camps in the rear of their respective batteries. This arrangement has proved highly satisfactory. The batteries on the bend are thus commanded:

Battery Numbers 1, Captain Rucker, six guns (three smooth).

Battery Numbers 2, Captain Sterling, four guns (one rifle).

Battery Numbers 3, Captain Hoadley, three guns (1 rifle).

Battery Numbers 4, Captain Jackson, four guns (three smooth, one rifle).

Battery Numbers 5, Captains Jones, Caruthers, and Dismuke, one rifle and six smooth.

On the island the batteries were thus distributed:

Battery Numbers 1, Captain Humes, six guns (smooth bore).

Battery Numbers 2, Captain Humes, four guns (rifle).

Battery 3, Captain Fisher, five guns (2 rifle, three smooth).

Battery Numbers 4, Captain Johnston, eight guns (siege howitzers).

The floating battery under the command of Captain Averett, of the Navy.

The ammunition for the various batteries (except Battery Numbers 2, which has no powder magazine) was duly stored in the powder magazine of each battery, and the Rhode and Tredegar shells and shot distributed for the rifled pieces, both on the island and on the bend. Our powder and round 32-pounder shot would average 150 rounds per piece; but the Read shot, our most reliable, did not average more than from 15 to 30 per piece. I immediately ordered, for the third time, a full supply of those projectiles now on hand.

Colonel Steedman, of the First Alabama Regiment, having been ordered to report to me for duty, I made a detail of two companies for the island, one for the floating battery, and a detail of 65 men for Batteries Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. This arrangement gives me four detachments for each guns; and invaluable resource in a prolonged action.

Careful and complete inspection passed on the 14th, both here and on the island, showed that our guns were all well mounted; that the implements for each were perfect and complete; that the men work their pieces with ease and facility; that they have an unbounded con-