Abstract from return of the Department of North Carolina, Major General John G. Foster commanding, for month of July, 1862.

Stations Officers Men Aggregate Aggregate

present present and

absent

Beaufort 12 285 369 383

Fort Macon 1 41 52 56

Hatteras Inlet ........ ..... ....... .........

New Berne 190 4,985 6,494 7,804

Newport 36 799 955 1,102

Barracks

Plymouth ........ 64 76 89

Total 239 6,174 7,946 9,434

Stations

Beaufort 5th Rhode Island.

Fort Macon 1st U. S. Artillery, Battery C.

Hatteras Inlet Three companies 103rd New York. No report.

New Berne 10th Connecticut: 17th, 23th, 24th, 25th, and

27th Massachusetts; 3rd New York Artillery;

New York Rocket Battery A; 3rd New York

Cavalry; and Battery F, 1st Rhode Island

Artillery

Newport 9th New Jersey, and New York Rocket Battery B.

Barracks

Plymouth Company F, 9th New York.

Total

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NORTH CAROLINA,
New Berne, August 7, 1862.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: I have the honor to report that everything in this department is progressing favorably. The fortifications are approaching completion and the block-houses on the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad are nearly finished.

The health of the troops is as good as reported in my last. The hospital at Portsmouth is ready to receive patients, and some invalids are at present being removed there, and in a short time I expect to have the greater portion of my sick at the general hospitals at Beaufort and Portsmouth on the seaboard.

Since my last report I have made three morel reconnaissance in force, the first by the Marine Artillery, on the transport steamer Massasoit, armed for the occasion with guns. The boat proceeded up the Neuse as far as Swift Creek, when, seeing a party of the enemy, they fired a few shells and landed, capturing 2 prisoners, with their horses and equipments complete. They then proceeded about 14 miles up the Neuse River, when, in consequence of orders to be at New Berne the same night, they returned.

The second consisted of the same boat, accompanies by the Pilot Boy and the Navy gunboat Ellis, under command of Lieutenant Porter, and proceeded up the same river to within 7 miles of Kinston, meeting with few, if any, obstructions on the way, but at this point the obstructions were more serious, consisting of sunken piles, which were indicated by ripples on the surface of the water; also a four-gun battery on the left bank of the river. The officers of the expedition landed on the opposite side of the river and reconnoitered the place thoroughly. The boats also threw a few shells into the battery, with what result is not known. The battery, however, did not return the fire of the boats. The object of the reconnaissance being accomplished, the expedition returned to New Berne.

The third expedition was started in conjunction with the second. This proceeded by land up the Trent road, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Mix, of the Third New York Cavalry, and consisted of nine