September 21 was occupied in strengthening our position at Rossville, and at a little after midnight the corps was moved into Chattanooga Valley, and thence to our camp in front of Chattanooga. From the 22nd September until now, this corps has been busy upon its fortifications, and now our front is organized and fortified as follows: Chattanooga Creek, a sluggish, miry stream with steep banks, passable in but three or four places, covers our front, the right of our line resting on the Tennessee River, our left connecting with General Thomas' corps. Our corps front is divided into three division fronts-Sheridan holding the right and Davis the left. Our troops are encamped behind the inner line of works, and one brigade of each division is kept advanced, as a species of advance guard, encamped.

The brigade commanders of the advanced brigades are ex officio division officers of the day for their division front, and report at these headquarters every morning at daybreak. One regiment of each advance brigade is posted as skirmishers in the line of works on the bank of Chattanooga Creek, and, where practicable, infantry vedettes are thrown forward, to enable the command thus disposed to be doubly secure. Scouts in the night-time are, in places, pushed out close to the enemy's line. The remaining three regiments of the brigade remain in the second line of works as a grand guard, and have with them a section of artillery without caissons.

Reports of brigade and division officers of the day, and of brigade and division inspectors, are received at this office daily, and thus both the corps and department commanders are promptly notified of the condition of affairs at the front.

Each brigade remains on outpost duty four days at a time, and then rests from its labor for eight days in the inner line, except the work in the trenches. Such is the present military status of the corps.

Its wants are numerous, and require prompt attention to avert the manifold evils arising from the hardships, fatigue, and exposure which it has been its lot so fully to bear and so unmurmuringly to endure. These wants appear in the consolidated reports accompanying this letter, and speak for themselves.

The sanitary condition of the command now present is good, but many sick and broken-down men have been sent back to our hospitals north of the Tennessee whenever an opportunity has occurred. Since the battle the medical department has been so much occupied with the wounded that it is impossible to obtain statistics of sickness to forward with this report.

The transportation of the corps present with the troops is reduced to narrow limits, and the remainder has been organized by our efficient quartermaster, Lieutenant-Colonel Boyd, into three division supply trains of four sections each, on the system explained at length in my letter of advice for Jully last. Ammunition trains and ambulance trains, under control of these departments, have been and are doing their duty, but in a sphere beyond my official cognizance. In the late battle our loss of transportation was insignificant, and to the best of my information-for our quartermaster is absent, if not a prisoner-was only two wagons, which were lost by the accidents of the road.

I would respectfully call your attention to the complaints made in the letters of advice of brigade inspectors, on the condition of accou-

9 R R-VOL XXX, PT IV