Major Boydston, not considering it a special claim to honor to keep possession of an evacuated place, allowed his tired guards to be relieved by guards from the command of Colonel Bertram. The day next following the brigade was ordered to Blakely, where I arrived the same day in the evening and encamped until the evening of the 11th instant, resting and recuperating, when I was ordered back to Spanish Fort to embark for Mobile. After a most fatiguing night march the brigade arrived at Starke's Landing on the morning of the 12th instant, and after considerable delay, orders and counter orders to embark, I succeeded at last, shipping the Thirty-third Iowa aboard of the General Banks; the Seventy-seventh Ohio, which had rejoined the brigade at Blakely, and the Twenty-eight Wisconsin aboard the Tin-clad, No. 46. Although the last to embark, the first troops of the Third Division landed below Mobile on the west side of the bay did belong to my brigade. No transportation was furnished for the Twenty-seventh Wisconsin, and the same was left as Starke's Landing and has not yet rejoined the command. On the 12th instant the brigade reached Mobile and encamped in the outskirts of the city, having done its full share in closing the last campaign of any magnitude in the present rebellion, should the last news of our victories in other quarters prove to be correct.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CONRAD KREZ,

Colonel Twenty-seventh Wisconsin Infty. Vols., Commanding Brigade.

Captain J. D. ROUSE,

Actg. Asst. Adjt. General, Third Division, Thirteenth Army Corps.

No. 41. Report of Major General Andrews J. Smith, U. S. Army, commanding Sixteenth Army Corps, of operations March 25-April 9.

HEADQUARTERS SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Montgomery, Ala., May 13, 1865.

GENERAL: I have the honor to report the part taken by my command in the operations around Mobile, which resulted in the capture of Spanish Fort and Blakely:

The corps having been concentrated at Dannelly's Mills, the head of navigation on the North Branch of Fish River, on the morning of the 25th of March, the command moved forward northwest by north, menacing both Spanish Fort and Blakely. Continuing the march on the 26th, with some slight skirmishing we reached Sibley's Mills, a point on Minette Creek four miles from Spanish Fort and about seven miles from Blakely. On the morning of the 27th, in obedience to instructions from Major-General Canby, the Second Division of my command, Brigadier General K. Garrard commanding, was left at this point in an entrenched camp covering the Blakely road where it crosses Minette Creek, in charge of the supply trains of the corps. With the First and Third Divisions of the corps, I moved southwest of Spanish Fort, driving the enemy's skirmishers and pickets inside their works. The divisions were placed in position as follows: The Third Division, Brigadier General E. A. Carr, on the right, with his right resting on Minette Bay, the First Division, Brigadier General J. McArthur commanding, on the