for the same by the post provost-marshal. Captain Wells received about 6,000 enlisted men, consisting of convalescent soldiers, recruits, returned soldiers from furlough and detached duty, and shirks. All of these men were forwarded to their proper commands with a dispatch and system unparalleled in my experience, and receipts obtained for them. Lieutenant Sears was engaged seven hours each day (Sunday excepted) with all the prisoners of the provost guard in sweeping the streets, carrying off the filth, and burying all dead and decaying matter within the limits of the fortifications. The Soldiers' Home furnished meals from over 10,000 rations. After the army moved northward in pursuit of Hood, about the 1st of October, detachments of the different army corps left behind with baggage, &c., were reported to the post commander, pursuant to orders from Major-General Slocum, to the number of 12,700 men, the different detachment commanded by persons of the different grades from that of colonel to that of corporal. All business on Sunday was stopped in the city; all stores and public buildings closed.

When the city of Atlanta was about to be evacuated and the Army of Georgia about to commence the "campaign of Savannah," and all railroad tracks and buildings, all warehouses and public buildings that would hereafter be of any military to the enemy were to be destroyed, under the direction of Captain O. M. Poe, chief engineer Military DIVISION of the Mississippi, the duties of the post command were to protect from accidental or wanton and destruction all buildings not designated to be destroyed. This called for the entire and united efforts of the whole command during the days and nights of the 13th, 14th, 15th, and part of November, 1864; and considering so great a number of buildings were destroyed, and very many by fire, in the compact part of the city, at a time when many stragglers were passing through the town, and when the excitement of so great a conflagration was almost overpowering, it is not too much to say that all the officers and men of that command deserve great praise for the prompt and energetic and successful performance of this new, difficult, and fatiguing duty. On the morning of the 14th of November I received an order from Major-General Slocum, commanding Left Wing, Army of Georgia, to remain in the city with my command until all the troops had passed, and then join the rear of the Fourteenth Corps, Bvt. Major General J. C. Davis commanding, which I did at 5 p. m. November 16, 1864, remaining with that corps and marching in its rear until the afternoon of the 21st of November at 5 o'clock, when at Eatonton Mills, Ga., I left it and joined the Twentieth Corps at Milledgeville, Ga., at 11 a. m. November 23, and then, pursuant to orders from Brigadier General A. S. Williams, commanding Twentieth Corps, I directed the different of my command to report to their respective brigades, and assuming command of my own regiment (Second Massachusetts Infantry) reported to my own brigade, Colonel E. A. Carman commanding.

In closing this report, I desire to express my thanks to the officers and men of the different regiments of the command, as well as of the different department of the post, for their earnest and efficient co-operation in the performance of the new, various, and arduous duties of the post of Atlanta.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. COGSWELL,

Colonel Second Massachusetts Infantry.

Lieutenant Colonel H. W. PERKINS,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Twentieth Army Corps.