Numbers 62. Report of Bvt. Major General Jefferson C. Davis, U. S. Army, commanding Fourteenth Army Corps, of operations January 20-March 23.

HEADQUARTERS FOURTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Goldsborough, N. C., March 28, 1865.

MAJOR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by the Fourteenth Army Corps during the recent campaign in Georgia and the Carolinas:

In compliance with instructions from the general-in-chief and the commander of the Left Wing during our encampment at Savannah,, Ga., the corps was placed as the length of time and state of supplies would permit. In accordance with the plan of the campaign and instructions received the Fourteenth Corps commenced its march on the Georgia side of the Savannah River for Sister's Ferry on the morning of the 20th of January. The excessive rainy season which so much impeded our progress during the succeeding ten days set in as the troops left their camps, and by night the roads through the swamps had become impassable to trains so heavily loaded, until they were corduroyed in many places for miles. Under these circumstances our movements were necessarily slow and fatiguing, especially to the animals. Nevertheless, the corps arrived and went into camp at Sister's Ferry, our first objective point, on the 28th, in advance of the Twentieth Corps, which was moving up the Savannah River on the South Carolina shore. The gun-boat Pontiac, commanded by Captain Luce, U. S. Navy, which had been ordered to co-operate with the column moving up this River, was laying at the ferry, and I immediately repaired on board and got under way for the purpose of making a reconnaissance up the River in search of a suitable place to locate our bridges. The unusual height water in the River had submerged the low and swampy banks, peculiar to this River, several feet under water. No two points of land above water and opposite to each other could be found for many miles along the River where a bridge could be constructed without one end of it terminating in a dense cypress swamp completely overflowed by the River. During the night the major-general commanding the wing arrived, and the next morning, after a personal examination of the crossing, concluded to establish the bridge at the old ferry as the most practicable point that could be found, and gave instructions accordingly. The laying of the bridge was soon completed, but the immense amount of labor to be done in clearing out the old road of drift wood and fallen timber was a heavy task. The frequent explosion of torpedoes, concealed under the water and drift, subjected the working parties to considerable danger, and several men were killed and wounded by these infernal machines. South Carolina has since paid the penalty of a resort to this low and mean spirit of warfare.

During the intervening days between the 29th of January and 4th of February, at which time my corps, following Kilpatrick's cavalry and the supply trains of the Fifteenth and Twentieth Corps, escorted by Corse's and Geary's divisions, respectively, began crossing. We were busily engaged in making roads, depots, and unloading transports, &c. By night of February 5 the entire corps, except a rear guard protecting the pontoon bridge and transports had completed the crossing and had gone into camp on the high grounds, two miles above the landing on the South Carolina shore. The 6th, Carlin's and Baird's divisions,