and French Broad River enabled us even to accumulate a quantity of commissary stores. I was told that it was officially reported at the beginning of the siege that we had on hand full supplies for only one day and a half. Yet, after nineteen days' siege, we had accumulated to such an extent, over lines just referred to, that we had provisions enough to last ten days. The cavalry force was at once sent in pursuit of the retreating enemy, and during the day sent in quite a number of prisoners.

On Monday, December 7,all the available infantry force of the Army of the Ohio was put in motion toward the enemy, and followed him slowly until the 9th, when our forces halted-the cavalry at Bean's Station and the infantry at Rutledge. The enemy had halted at or near the Red Bridge, between Beans Station and Rogersville. No attack was made by us, as the enemy was still in vastly superior force.

On the 11th, Major-General Burnside, having been relieved by

Major-General Foster, left for the North, and that properly fixes the close of this report.

To Lieutenant Colonel O. E. Babcock, assistant inspector-general of the Ninth Army Corps, and captain of Engineers, I am under very heavy obligations. Always ready with the most practicable advice, he cheerfully gave it, and it never passed unheeded. To Maj. S. S. Lyon, Fourth Kentucky Cavalry, and assistant engineer, I am under obligations for valuable reconnaissance. It is a matter of regret that the age and failing health of this officer impairs to a certain extent his usefulness as a topographer, for which branch of science he has such a wonderful talent. Captain C. E. McAlester,

Twenty-third Michigan Infantry, acting as chief engineer of the Twenty-third Army Corps; Captain G. W. Gowan, Forty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers, assistant engineer of the Army of the Ohio; Captain O. S. McClure, Fiftieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in command of the Engineer Battalion, rendered important assistance.

The Engineer Battalion proved almost invaluable. Its members were always ready to work, day or night, and did it with an intelligence which directed the labor toward a result. My thanks are due, and are freely given, to its officers and men.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

ORLANDO M. POE,

Captain, U. S. Engs., Chief Engineer, Army of the Ohio.

Maj. Gen. AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE,

Commanding Army of the Ohio.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, CHIEF ENGINEER'S OFFICE, Nashville, Tennessee, April 11, 1864.

SIR: * Meanwhile, I had dispatched Asst. J. H. Brooks to Loudon, with instructions concerning defensive works at that point. He had been directed to make a survey of the road from Knoxville to Loudon, which I had decided to adopt as the base of surveys on the peninsula included between the Clinch and Holston Rivers, and extending as far to the eastward as Strawberry Plains. The subse-

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*For part (here omitted) covering operations in East Tennessee from August 12 to October 10, 1863, see Series I, Vol. XXX, Part II,p.568.

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