HDQRS. SEVENTY-FOURTH Regiment PENNSYLVANIA VOLS.,
Beverly, W. Va., May 5, 1865.

Lieutenant JAMES P. WILKINSON,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, Clarksburg:

Scouts just returned from Greenbier River brought in four rebels who contradict themselves. I sent them to headquarters as soon as I had an escort. If agreeable, I shall send out a strong scouting party toward Pocahontas to find out the foundation of the prevailing rumors.

G. HOBURG,

Colonel, Commanding Seventy-fourth Regiment Pennsylvania Vols. and Post.

ENGINEER DEPARTMENT,

Washington, D. C., May 6, 1865.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: The defenses of Washington at this time consist of seventy-four inclosed forts and armed batteries, each having a guard or garrison, and armed with 905 guns of various calibers, with magazine stores with powder and fixed ammunition amounting to about 200 rounds per gun, or 181,000 rounds. This system of defensive works envelopes the city, navy-yard, Alexandria, and Georgetown, and was constructed against rebel enemies who could approach by land from north, south, east, and west, and is about thirty-two miles in extent. The necessity for this extensive system of temporary works no longer exists, and I recommend that fifty-one of these forts and inclosed batteries be at once dismantled, the artillery and stores of all kinds withdrawn, and deposited either in the remaining twenty-three forts or at the arsenals, stores, and depots under charge of the different military departments of the army. After disarming, dismantling, and withdrawing the stores, a guard should remain to protect the property from fire and injury, and measures taken to restore the grounds to the rightful owners. To this end it is advisable, as far as practicable, to liquidate claims on the Government for the uses and changes made to the property by conveying to the owners the right and title to the buildings and fixtures, of timber on the bomb-proofs, magazines, and stockades of the several works; which, if unacceptable to the claimants in full satisfaction for the use of the ground, changes, alternations, and removal of fences, woods, same shall be removed and materials in part sold in such manner as shall be found most advantageous to the public interest, and the residue stored as may be useful for the military service elsewhere. The works to be retained for the present will be:

On the north of the Potomac: Fort Carroll, Fort Stanton, Fort Baker, Fort Mahon, Fort Lincoln, Fort Totten, Fort Slocum, Fort Stevens, Fort Reno, and Fort Sumner; and on the south of the Potomac: Fort Lyon and three redoubts, Fort Ellsworth, Fort Worth, Fort Ward, Fort Richardson, Fort McPherson, Fort Whipple, Fort Morton, Fort C. F. Smith, and Fort Ethan Allen. The two river forts, to wit, Fort Foote and Battery Rodgers, will also, be retained for the present. These twenty-three retained forts and redoubts occupy and command thirteen positions or lines of approach by roads or cover the cities of Alexandria, Georgetown, and Washington; its navy-yard and arsenal,