The quartermaster's and commissary departments were well regulated by Lieutenant-Colonel Tolles and Captain Sturdevant. The men were rationed as regularly as though we had been in a permanent camp. The ambulance corps was well managed by Captain J. Howell Robinson. The remainder of my staff rendered efficient services, and I respectfully recommend them to the attention of the commanding general. They are:Lieutenant Colonel E. R. Platt,assistant inspector-general; Major M. T. McMahon, aide-de-camp; Captain John P. Baker, aide-de-camp; Captain J. C. Jackson, aide-de-camp, and Lieutenant D. Lyon, aide-de-camp. Captain James Starr and Lieuts. Albert P. Morrow and E. N. Carpenter, of the Lancer regiment, who were detailed as extra aides-de-camp, rendered very efficient service.

Surgs. Charles O'Leary and J. T. Heard, medical directors of the Sixth and First Corps, in the absence of a medical director of the left grand division, were exceedingly efficient and energetic in the performance of their appropriate duties.

The services of Messrs. P. C. F. West and Charles M. Bache, U. S. Coast Survey, during the action were important and cheerfully rendered. I thank those gentlemen, and commend them to the favorable notice of the Government.

W. B. FRANKLIN,

Major-General, Commanding Left Grand Division.

Major General J. G. PARKE, Chief of Staff.

No. 208. Report of Major General John F. Reynolds, U. S. Army, commanding First Army Corps.

HDQRS. FIRST ARMY CORPS, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, December 21, 1862.

COLONEL: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of the First Corps during December 11,12,13,14, and 15:

In obedience to the orders previously issued, the different divisions (Gibbon's, Meade's and Doubleday's) of the First Corps took up their line of march, in the order named, at 5 o'clock on the morning of the 11th, for the positions which had been designated for them in the vicinity of the place selected for the crossing of the Rappahannock, there to await the construction of the bridges over the river, which it was expected would be completed by daylight, the Third Brigade, of Meade's division, under General Jackson, with the light 12-pounder batteries of Ransom and Simpson, having been posted, under the direction of the engineer officer, at 2 o'clock that morning, on the immediate bank of the river, to cover the working party engaged in throwing across the bridges. The 3-inch rifled batteries of Reynolds, Hall, Thompson, Amsden, and Ricketts (in all twenty-two guns) had reported the day previous to Captain G. A. De Russy, Fourth Artillery, and were posted, under his direction, during the night of the 10th, on the heights north of the river road, and overlooking the plain beyond the river, on which the columns would have to deploy after crossing.

The two bridges were completed about 1 p.m., without any very serious opposition from the enemy. Two attempts which he made to delay their progress having been immediately repulsed by the batteries of Ransom and Simpson, together with the fire of the sharpshooters along