On the evening of the 15th, under the direction of Captain Bell, the depot at Westover was broken up, and the supply vessels yet there proceeded to Fort Monroe, the propellers taking the sail vessels and barges in tow. Many of our vessels had previously been sent down the river by the quartermaster's department. For some time we had had from fifty to sixty days' rations for the entire army, ashore and afloat, at Westover. Captain Bell arrived at Fort Monroe on the 16th, and assisted Captain Taylor in discharging vessels and arranging for issuing to the troops on their arrival from above.

On the 18th Captain A. P. Porter proceeded with a party and several vessels laden with subsistence to Yorktown, where he assisted Captain E. W. Coffin, the depot commissary of subsistence at that place, in landing stores to supply any wants of the troops passing and to embark at that point.

On the 21st Lieutenant Colonel G. Bell [promoted from captain] left Fort Monroe and arrived at Aquia Creek the next day. Lieutenant Colonel A. P. Porter [promoted from captain] arrived at same place the next day from Yorktown. At Aquia Creek every possible assistance was given to the officers of the department on duty there in discharging stores and sending them to the front. On the 28th Lieutenant-Colonel Bell, with his party and a number of supply vessels, arrived at Alexandria.

August 30 Captain B. Granger was placed in charge of a supply train of seventy-five wagons for General Pope's army, with orders to proceed to Manassas. He arrived at Centreville while that army was engaged in the second battle of Bull Run. He turned over most of his stores to Captain A. S. Austin, commissary of General Hooker's division. The brigades of Generals Newton and Hancock were also supplied at Centreville.

September 1 Captain Wilson was sent to Fairfax Station, on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, to take charge of the depot previously established at that place for the purpose of supplying the troops of General Pope's army. On the afternoon of the 2nd he received orders from Colonel E. G. Beckwith, chief commissary of subsistence of that army, to "issue stores to all who required them, but load up the cars with the greatest dispatch, and when loaded go to Alexandria." Captain Wilson complied with his instructions to the satisfaction of all concerned.

Entering upon the Maryland campaign September 8, accompanied by Captain Wilson, I joined the commanding general at Rockville, Md. Each command previous to taking up the march had been directed to carry with it as many days' rations as possible in the wagons and men's haversacks.

On the 10th Lieutenant Colonel A. P. Porter, assisted by Captain B. Granger, established a depot for the issue of rations at Rockville. A herd of beef cattle, in charge of Captain W. R. Murphy, commissary of subsistence of volunteers, had been previously sent to that vicinity. Several canal barges laden with subsistence stores arrived at Seneca Creek from Washington in the night of the 10th, and Captain W. H. Douglass, commissary of subsistence of volunteers, was placed in charge, to issue to all commands that could be best supplied from that point.

To meet the wants of the army as it advanced, on the 12th the Commissary-General was requested to have 600,000 rations of the principal articles forwarded at the earliest moment possible to Frederick City, or as near to that place as they could be transported by railroad. The same day Lieutenant-Colonel Porter, leaving Lieutenant William B. Kimball, Thirteenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, in charge of the