energy in the discharge of their duties. The remainder of the month was occupied in collecting the scattered parties of the detachment delayed at Wilmington for want of transportation. A line of stations was prospected from Wilmington to the outposts of General Terry, near Spring Garden, N. C. This line could have been established after considerable labor by the pioneer corps, but was pronounced unnecessary by the chief of staff.

I had proposed to open communication with Federal Point, N. C., by the occupation of the line of stations operated by the enemy. This was also considered unnecessary in view of the expected telegraphic and regular water communication with Fort Fisher, and therefore not attempted. A thorough instruction of inexperienced non-commissioned officers of the command was also here commenced in obedience to circular orders from the Chief Signal Officer, U. S. Army.

Upon the 2nd of March, 1865, First Lieutenant Thomas P. Rushby, Signal Corps, U. S. Army, accompanied by seven enlisted men, was detailed, by order of the commanding general, for special service upon the gunboat Lenapee, operating on the Cape Fear River, for the purpose of opening communication with Major-General Sherman, whose troops were reported to be at or near Fayetteville, N. C., but returned upon the 3rd of March, having accomplished nothing, from the impossibility of navigating above the junction of the Black and Cape Fear Rivers. Upon the latter date First Lieutenant Joseph B. Knox, Signal Corps, U. S. Army, accompanied by Second Lieutenant Henry P. Johnston and Charles W. Pease, acting signal officers, and twenty enlisted men, reported for duty to Major General J. D. Cox, commanding the District of Beaufort, at New Berne, N. C., and marched with the U. S. troops advancing upon Kinston, N. C. This party, unlike the detachment operating against Wilmington, was thoroughly equipped and in excellent condition for active service.

Upon the 4th of March, although a large portion of the command were still detained at or en route from Washington, I prepared and submitted for approval a plan of organization for the ensuing campaign, based upon the existing disposition of the troops in the department, that there might be no further delay in shaping the detachment. Upon the 6th of the month, in obedience to circular instructions from department headquarters, the adjutant and property officer of the detachment and myself, with seven enlisted men, embarked at Wilmington on the steamer Escort for New Berne, N. C., to accompany the commanding general, while the remainder of the detachment, with the exception of Lieutenant Beardslee's party, at General Terry's headquarters, marched for Kinston, N. C., with the troops of Major General D. N. Couch, U. S. Volunteers. Upon that evening the forces of Major General J. D. Cox halted at Gum Swamp, upon the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad, six miles above Core Creek. (See Appendix C.) A line of four stations was immediately established by Lieutenant Knox, communicating from the front to the telegraph station at the creek, thus completing communication between Morehead City and New Berne, N. C., and the headquarters of Major-General Cox. (See Appendix C, Stations Nos. 1 to 4.)

Upon the 8th of March, the advance lines of the expedition having been established four miles above Gum Swamp, and the telegraph station, hitherto at Core Creek, having been carried to a point between the Dover and Gum Swamps, Lieutenant Knox again completed communication from the front to the rear of the army by establishing two new stations between Brigadier-General Palmer's headquarters on the