transportation must continue to cause greater anxiety in the further progress of the war; but it is a fact established by actual inspection, and otherwise notorious, that the railways meeting in Atlanta are in the best average condition and best supplied with rolling-stock of any roads meeting at any one point in the Confederacy, while your army is nearer its sources of supply than any other large army in the country. In regard to the six trains running from Augusta toward points in North Carolina, I beg leave to state that Major Peters is mistaken as to the freights they transport; they are not all, nor the most of them, devoted to cotton. The forces in Virginia and North Carolina depend for most of their supplies upon Georgia and a small portion of South Carolina, thus requiring armies to be supplied from a distance of 500 to 800 miles. This causes excessive pressure on the railways between Georgia and Richmond, increased in South Carolina by the demands of the city of Charleston, and a long coast constantly threatened; and I will add that so far as these trains are devoted to the transportation of Government cotton, they are performing a most important service, for I see no hope of keeping our armies in the field without the shoes, blankets, and woolens which we receive from abroad in return for the cotton exported. I submit these facts in reference to the present demands and means of transportation in the hope that our views will not differ when they are based upon the same information. I have applied to the Governor of Georgia to apply the remedy on the road controlled by that State, and will endeavor to make some addition to its rolling-stock from the small number of cars and locomotives which we have saved from the enemy in the falling back of our armies. Railroad transportation is scarce everywhere, but I am satisfied your army is at this time better served than any other in the Confederacy. I regret that you did not adopt my suggestion, made by telegraph, to inquire into the manner in which Major Hottle conducts railroad transportation at Atlanta (through your chief quartermaster or otherwise) before you insist on a change there. Major Peters was ordered to Mississippi to act, with the advice and assistance of Samuel Tate, esq., in the construction of railways in that section some time before you took command at Dalton. He was only permitted to remain in Atlanta until Major Hottle should be fully instructed, and to present temporary confusion, but he has remained there up to this time, and therefore no injury can be attributed to the change you refer to. I am satisfied that Major Hottle's past experience in railway matters and his great physical energies will be found equal to any emergency. Major Peters (a most worthy officer) is advanced in years and was so pressed that he tendered me his resignation, which I declined to approve.

Permit me to add in conclusion, general, that I will be most happy to render all the assistance in my power, and after you are fully possessed of all the facts to act upon your wishes, as far as I am able to do so.

A. R. LAWTON,

Quartermaster-General.

DALTON, GA., January 21.1864.

Brigadier General JOHN C. BROWN:

GENERAL: The intelligence that the Third Tennessee Regiment tendered, on the 15th instant, by a vote almost unanimous, their