commanding, unassigned (under direct orders of chief engineer); First Regiment Missouri Engineers, Lieutenant Colonel William Tweeddale, Right Wing pontonies; detachment Fifteenth Regiment New York Volunteer Engineer,-commanding, Center pontoniers; Engineer Battalion, Twenty-third Army Corps, Center engineers; Fifty-eighth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Lieutenant Colonel J. Moore commanding, Left Wing pontoniers.

Third. Pontoon trains:

Feet of canvas.

With Right Wing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600

With Center Wing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600

With Left Wing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800

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Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000

The organization of pioneers and tool trains was exactly as described heretofore, except that it was extended to the additional force that had joined us.

I mention the organization of the engineer department because I found that with all the experience gained in the remarkable campaigns of Savannah and the Carolinas nothing better was suggested. It was found to be efficient, and it was so simple as to be readily handled. On the 10th of April the army moved forward upon the road to Raleigh, meeting with feeble resistance. The usual corduroying and bridge building commenced at once, and four pontoon bridges were laid across the Neuse on the 11th. The city of Raleigh was entered without opposition on the 13th, and in a day or two afterward followed the convention between General Sherman and the rebel general Joseph E. Johnston. At the time of this convention we had pushed a pontoon train out to Aven's Ford, on Cape Fear River, and had built a bridge there.

After the surrender of the rebel forces the forces composing the Right and Left Wings, as already described, commenced their march to Washington. The map, on a scale of 1. 350000, prepared under my direction, shows the routes of march from Goldsborough to Raleigh, and thence to Washington, D. C. ; also the points at which pontoon bridges were built. On course there was no especial merit in anything done by the engineers during this march any more than there would be during any other march in a time of profound peace.

Upon our arrival at Washington the pontoon trains, which had done us such efficient service, were turned over to an officer designated by the Engineer Bureau. One of them had been hauled on wagons from Nashville, Tenn., via Chattanooga, Atlanta, Savannah, and Raleigh to this city; and the other had in like manner been hauled over the same route from Chattanooga, and they had been in almost daily use for a year with one sithe canvas covers, and were in excellent condition when delivered here. Can any facts go further to show the value of the canvas train in campaigns of the character described? No wooden boats would have stood a moiety of the rough usage bestowed upon these. A few days' hauling over the mountains of bestowed upon these. A few days' hauling over the mountains of Georgia, or the corduroy roads of the Carolina swamps, would have used them up.

As the result of experience I would suggest that a change be made in the wagons of the canvas pontoon train so that the wheels and axles shall conform to those in use in the quartermaster's department, and the balance of the wood work be that proposed by Colonel Pettes. The reasons for this recommendation are given at some length in a former communication to the Bureau. I may mention that the bridge equipage