for future operations at its end than at its beginning, and we certainly made more than a replacement of the damage done by Hood along our line of communication.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

O. O. HOWARD,

Major-General.

Captain L. M. DAYTON,

Aide-de-Camp.

No. 77. Report of Captain James M. McClintock, Chief Acting Signal Officer.

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF ACTING SIGNAL OFFICER, ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE, Atlanta, Ga., November 4, 1864.

COLONEL: I have the honor to submit the following report of duty performed by the detachment of the signal corps under my charge during the month of October, 1864:

Upon the 4th instant [ultimo] the detachment accompanied the army which moved toward Marietta, to operate against the enemy who had the day before made his appearance in force upon the railroad between Kenesaw and Allatoona Mountains and destroyed it, also the telegraph for several miles; therefore there was no means of communication with Allatoona and the north except by signals. As several of the officers were absent on leave and business, our force in the field (aside from those on Kenesaw and Allatoona Mountains) stood as follows: At headquarters of the detachment were Lieutenant Sampson and myself; with the Seventeenth Corps, Lieutenant Sherfy. Lieutenant William Ware, acting assistant quartermaster of the detachment, was left in this place in charge of surplus men, stores, &c., while Lieutenants Worley, Allen, Dunlap, and Shellabarger were absent on leave. After crossing the Chattahoochee, we proceeded some five miles and went into camp for the night. On the 5th the army moved to and took position on the Marietta and Powder Sprigs road, at Kolb's farm, some two miles and a half southwest of Marietta, and there awaited orders. At 3 p. m. I instructed Lieutenant Stickney to establish a station, and, if possible, open communication with the station on Kenesaw Mountain. This he failed to do, from the fact (as I afterward learned) that the officers on the mountain were too busy with the regular stations to attend to him.

On the 6th I sent Lieutenant Kelley to Kenesaw, temporarily to assist those officers and open with Lieutenant Stickney, but as the weather was very unfavorable, nothing was accomplished until the morning of the 7th, when communication essages transmitted. Our line then extended from headquarters Army of those of General Sherman, near the southern base of Little Kenesaw, distance about six miles, with one intermediate station on the mountain. On the same day (7th) I proceeded on a tour of observation to Kenesaw, relieved Lieutenant Kelley, and placed Lieutenant Sherfy in charge of the station. Since the 1st, Lieutenant Fish, assisted by Lieutenant Connelly, of the Army of the Cumberland, had been in charge of the regular station, communicating with Allatoona, Marietta,