of President Lincoln, who ever cherished and expressed for this army the warmest appreciation of the services it had rendered. But we may feel that the work of intense labor and sacrifice, as exemplified in the loss of such men as Ransom and McPherson and a host of other fearless and unselfish men, was only complete when our great, our noble, our beloved chief worked was himself laid on the altar. Commensurate with all this sacrifice will be the blessed fact that we now really have "Liberty and Union, one and inseparable," as the sure prize of victory.

Very respectfully,

O. O. HOWARD,

Major-General.

Major L. M. DAYTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Military Division of the Mississippi.

Numbers 10. Reports of Captain Peter A. Taylor, Signal Corps, U. S. Army, Chief Signal Officer.

HEADQUARTERS SIGNAL CORPS, U. S. ARMY,
DEPARTMENT AND ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE,

Goldsborough, N. C., March 30, 1865.

COLONEL: I have the honor to report that on the 13th of January, in compliance with General Field Orders, Numbers 4, headquarters Department and Army of the Tennessee, Beaufort, S. C., January 12, 1865, I assumed command of the signal detachment serving with that army, relieving Captain J. M. McClintock, having reported to the major-general commanding in obedience to Special Orders, Numbers 343, War Department, Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, October 12, 1864. There were at that time serving in the detachment ten commissioned officers - five acting signal officers, and five belonging to the regular organization of the corps, disposed as follows: Three with the Fifteenth Army Corps, four with the Seventeenth Army Corps, and three - acting chief, acting adjutant, and acting assistant quartermaster - with the headquarters of the army. Lieutenants Shellabarger, Adams, and Kelly of the number were on duty temporarily under orders of Captain Bachtell, working line of signal stations between Savannah and Fort Pulaski, where they remained until the 17th, when the line was broken up, and they, with exception of Lieutenant Kelly, who was assigned by Captain Bachtell to temporary duty with the Fourteenth Army Corps, reported back to this detachment.

On assuming command I at once proceeded to organize the detachments in a manner deemed most effective for the coming campaign. Two officers, with their usual number of enlisted men, were left with each army corps - Lieutenant Sherfy and Adams with the Fifteenth and Lieutenants Dunlap and Kelly with the Seventeenth - while the remainder were ordered in to army headquarters, where a reserve party was formed - Captain McClintock in charge - to operate under the immediate direction of the chief signal officer. The sergeants then present for duty were assembled in the reserve camp and their instruction in signal codes and in station duty commenced. A new code of signals to take the place of the old code in transmitting messages rapidly shot distance was arranged and introduced into the detachment, copy of which was furnished Captain Bachtell, who adopted