the accompanying tracing of a map of that river*, showing the position of our batteries and the obstructions.

From this sketch, it is evident that if Moccasin Creek is not obstructed, the batteries and obstructions of the Apalachicola will prove useless for purposes of defense, and a mere waste of time and material and money. To the charge that these batteries and obstructions do not fulfill the objects in view, owing to the existence of a route by which they may be avoided, I have the honor to submit in reply, the following extract from the report of Captain Moreno, chief engineer, State of Florida, dated August 11, 1863:

The sketch of the river, made from the deck of a steamboat, will show the passage through Moccasin Creek and that through the sluices of Free Trader's Bend. There is another and a much longer route through Gum Swamp, but at this state of the water a small open boat can hardly pass through it, and it would take a great deal of work to take a steamboat through it in a freshet. This swamp is 6 miles long.

The suggestion of Colonel Magill, to build a battery at Fort Gadsden, it appears, was once entertained by Captain Moreno, from the following extract from his letter:

I once thought of placing guns at Fort Gadsden, 28 mils below, but the caliber of our largest (32-pounders) is so small, and the range down the river so long, that we may be shell out of our works without being able to reach the enemy with our shot.

The objections to removing the guns from Batteries Cobb and Gilmer to the works at Hammock Landing are, that it exposes so much more of the country to the inroads of the enemy, and weakest by so much our means of defense of the rich counties lying between the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers. In the defense of the water courses of this department, it is impossible to reconcile the various antagonistic interests which lie along their banks, yet every effort has been made to consult, as far as compatible with the public service, the interests of the inhabitants of the river banks. Captain Moreno, has, after long and patient examinations of the whole subject, selected certain points as affording the best means of defense of that portion of the department intrusted to his charge, and I do not think his plans should be altered, and works which have been built at considerable expense be abandoned, without the assurance of greater gain to the public service than is set forth in the communications of Colonel Magill and Mr. Orman.

D. B. HARRIS,

Colonel, and Chief Engineer.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. S. C., GA., AND FLA., Numbers 213.
Charleston, S. C., October 18, 1863.

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XII. To commemorate the conspicuous intrepidity of First Sergt. T. H. Tynes, of Company A, Lucas' battalion of artillery, who fell, mortally wounded, in defense of Battery Wagner, the commanding general directs that the work on Dill's place, north of Battery Pringle, shall hereafter be known and designated officially as Battery Tynes.

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By command of General Beauregard:

JNO. M. OTEY,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

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*See p. 425.

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