No. 258. Report of Major General Jacob D. Cox, U. S. Army, commanding Provisional Corps, of operations March 1 - 31.

HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-THIRD ARMY CORPS, Greensborough, N. C., May 16, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to make the following report of the operations of the Provisional Corps, under my command, from the 1st day of March last to the occupation of Goldsborough, and my permanent assignment to this corps:

On the 26th of February, being in command of the Third Division, Twenty-third Army Corps, at Wilmington, I received orders from the commanding general to proceed at once by sea to Beaufort and New Berne, N. C., and assume command of the District of Beaufort, comprising that portion of the State which was the theater of operations of our forces at Beaufort and northward of that point within the State of North Carolina, to organize the troops there, together with the First Division, Twenty-third Army Corps - which was ordered to report to me there - into a Provisional Corps; and after assigning such garrisons as might be necessary to the important points near the sea-board, to advance with the rest toward Kinston, covering the reconstruction of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad, which was to be rebuilt and put in order by a construction corps of Colonel W. W. Wright, chief engineer of the military railways of General Sherman's command. I was further instructed that the chief of the movement was to open to the army of General Sherman, then moving from Savannah, a new base of supplies at Beaufort Harbor, and to press the reconstructions of the road and its protection till we should unite with the remainder of the grand army at Goldsborough, which we were expected to do between the 15th and 20th of March.

Sailing that evening I reached New Berne in the night of the 28th of February, and on the following day, March 1, assumed command and organized the forces. The troops at that time within the district consisted of, first the garrisons, which for nearly two years had been stationary at New Berne, Morehead, Fort Macon, Roanoke Island, and Plymouth the whole under command of Brigadier General I. N. Palmer, and consisting of about 6,000 effective; and, second, a body of convalescents and furloughed men of all the regiments in General Sherman's army returning to their commands, and provisionally organized into battalions and brigades under convalescent and other returning officers of the same Army, numbering in all about 3,000 effective.

The First Division, Twenty-third Army Corps, had not yet arrived, but landed in the course of the next two days.

The provisionally organized brigades of convalescents, &c., and the troops of the old district, which could be mobilized by reducing all garrisons to a minimum, were then organized into two divisions, of which the First was assigned to Brigadier General I. N. Palmer and the Second to Brigadier General S. P. Carter. The following table exhibits the organization as completed:

First Division, Twenty-third Army Corps, Bvt. Major General Thomas H. Ruger, commanding: First Brigade, Colonel John M. Orr, One hundred and twenty-fourth Indiana, commanding till March 12, then Bvt. Brigadier General I. N. Stiles - One hundred and twentieth Indiana Volunteers, One hundred and twenty-fourth Indiana Volunteers, One hundred and twenty-eighth Indiana Volunteers, One hundred and eightieth