[Inclosure No. 2.] QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington City, January 13, 1865.

Bvt. Brigadier General CHARLES THOMAS,

Acting Quartermaster-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to submit for your information the inclosed statement of forage shipped to General Sherman's army. On the 6th instant Captain Chapman, assistant quartermaster at New York, was directed to turn over to Bvt. Brigadier General S. Van Vliet, quartermaster, for the supply of General Sherman's army thirty days' rations of grain for 35,000 animals, and upon completion of the above to continue to ship to Port Royal the same amount of grain and fifty tons of hay daily.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. L. BROWN,

Colonel, in Charge of Fifth Division.

[Sub-inclosure.]

Statement of amounts of forage shipped for the supply of General Sherman's Army.

Shipped to- On whose order Date. Corn.

Bushels.

Port Royal, S. C. Quartermaster- Nov. 1, 1864 7,498.05

General

Pensacola, Fla. ...do... ...do... 10,347.21

Port Royal, S. C. ...do... Nov.28, 19,099.07

1864, to

Jan. 10, 1865

Total ................ ............ 36,944.33

Shipped to- On whose order Date. Oats.

Bushels.

Port Royal, S. C. Quartermaster- Nov. 1, 1864 25,734.12

General

Pensacola, Fla. ...do... ...do... 35,125.02

Port Royal, S. C. ...do... Nov.28, 357,408.21

1864, to

Jan. 10, 1865

Total ................ ............ 418,268.35

Shipped to- On whose order Date. Hay.

Pounds.

Port Royal, S. C. Quartermaster- Nov. 1, 1864 1,049,319

General

Pensacola, Fla. ...do... ...do... 911,763

Port Royal, S. C. ...do... Nov.28, 6,547,857

1864, to

Jan. 10, 1865

Total ................ ............ 8,508,939

I certainly that the above statement is correct as per official reports.

S. L. BROWN,

Colonel, in Charge of Division of Requisitions and Supplies.

ARTILLERY HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

January 13, 1865.

Bvt. Lieutenant Colonel S. F. BARSTOW,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Army of the Potomac:

COLONEL: I respectfully recommend that the batteries applied for by General Wright, in his letter of the 3rd of January, be returned to this army. We have now forty-two batteries, including horse artillery (228 guns). Many of these batteries have been carried up from four to six guns to furnish artillery for the forts on our lines, and some of them are too weak in men to take that number of guns into the field. It is preferable, whatever number of guns is decided upon as the proportion to the troops, to organize as four-gun batteries all such as have not the maximum of men allowed to a battery, and to send the "attached" infantrymen back to their commands. For a given number of guns, the greater the number of batteries the more efficiently will they be manned and the less will they draw upon the other arms. The batteries are lying in Washington, where I understand there is an excess of artillery unemployed.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

HENRY J. HUNT,

Brigadier-General.