MANASSAS, November 9, 1862-12.30 p.m.

Colonel HAUPT, Chief of Transportation:

A man named Stowe here refuses to move the trains, according to my orders. The road is blockaded, and unless the trains are moved, as I direct, it is impossible to unload them.

By command of General Sickles:

JAS. F. RUSLING,

Captain and Assistant Quartermaster.

NOVEMBER 9, 1862-1.40 p.m.

Captain JAMES F. RUSLING, Manassas:

The capacity of the road, under ordinary management, is not half equal to the requirements of transportation for the army. Without the immediate unloading and return of trains, whenever they arrive and wherever they may stand, the supply of the army will be impossible. Time cannot be lost in moving cars backward and forward to particular points to be unloaded. I had interview with Colonels Clarke and Ingalls and General McClellan, and orders were given such as I have here indicated to be necessary. Our men are disposed to be, and must be, accommodating, but when trains arrive there must be not a moment's delay in the unloading. The force must be sufficient to unload all the cars at once, and wagons must be employed to move stores to warehouses, or other more convenient points, after the train leaves. This is absolutely and indispensably necessary, or the army must suffer.

Show this to General Sickles.

H. HAUPT,

Brigadier-General, in Charge of U. S. Military Railroads.

(Repeated to J. H. Devereaux, and copy to Halleck.)

WASHINGTON, November 9, 1862-4.40 p.m.

Major-General BURNSIDE:

Arrangements in regard to transportation were fully discussed, explanations made, and a programme determined upon between General McClellan his chief quartermaster and commissary, and myself, previous to his removal. As you are now in chief command, I think it proper to report to you, and ask instructions in regard to certain points.

The road by which your army is to be supplied is a single track, without sidings sufficient for long trains, without wood, and with insufficient supplies of water; a road which has heretofore failed to supply an army of one-fourth the size of that which you command; a road the ordinary working capacity of which is not equal to the half of your requirements, but which, by a combination of good management and good fortune, may be able to furnish your supplies. To do this, it is absolutely necessary that at each and every depot a force should be in readiness to unload a train as soon as it arrives. The contents of cars must be unloaded on the ground, and afterward moved, in necessary, to more convenient points. The force should be sufficient to unload all the cars of a train at once. Railway employes are required to be civil and accommodating, and if they are not, they will be promptly dismissed; but the convenience of