amount of forage it will be necessary to retain at this depot for the supply of the various commands. All forage over and above this amount, which may be here, in transit, or at Fortress Monroe, destined for this point, will be sent as soon as practicable up the Potomac to Alexandria, with orders to be reported to General Rucker, chief quartermaster, depot of Washington. The forage shipped from this point yesterday for General Sherman's and General Sheridan's commands will be taken into consideration in the amount required to be withheld for them. This point will continue the main depot for all the troops on the lines of communication leading to Richmond, Burkeville, Danville, and Lynchburg until otherwise ordered by some competent commanding general in Virginia or then Quartermaster-General at Washington. It will be necessary to have small depots continued at Richmond, Petersburg, and probably at Burkeville, for the issue of the daily supplies sent from the main depot at City Point. All sub-depots will be under your exclusive supervision and jurisdiction, and you will control all means of water, land, and railway transportation relating thereto. Major-General Halleck has ordered Major Cochrane, assistant quartermaster, to be put in charge of the depot in Richmond, Captain Folsom in Petersburg, and Captain Lambert in Fredericksburg. All vessels having on board forage, subsistence, railroad stock, &c., to be left here will be unloaded and cleared as soon as possible. The depot will be reduced to the actual wants from time to time as the number of troops dependent upon it for supplies decreases. All surplus material not to be sold or otherwise disposed of here will be sent to Washington, to be reported on arrival to General Rucker. The number of white employes will be reduced to the minimum required for the transaction of the business at the depot. The colored employes will be held until the orders of the Quartermaster-General on the subject are communicated.

Your attention is called to General Orders, Nos.24, 25, and 26, of the Quartermaster-General, recently issued. You will see that they are promptly executed so far as they require action on the part of yourself and the officers on duty at the depot. The reports called for will be forwarded through this office, if I am here when prepared, but if I am elsewhere, you will forward them direct with your recommendations to the Quartermaster-General. The depot of repairs will remain under the charge of Captain Strang as heretofore, subject, however, to your orders after my departure. After my departure, and as long as General Easton, chief quartermaster General Sherman's armies, remains here, you will obey such orders as he may have to give, so far as the supply of those armies is concerned.

Very respectfully, yours, &c.,

RUFUS INGALLS,

Brigadier-General and Chief Quartermaster.

[Indorsement.]

OFFICE OF CHIEF QUARTERMASTER,

City Point, Va., May 7, 1865.

Respectfully referred to Captain E. J. Strang, assistant quartermaster in charge of depot of repairs, City Point, who will carry out the within instructions so far as they relate to him. Captain Strang will have the direct charge of the sale of condemned and unserviceable property referred to in General Meigs' notice of the 29th ultimo. If the property cannot be sold without too great a loss to the Government, he will suspend the sales and report by telegraph for orders to myself or the