over to Colonel Gibson, Second Ohio Heavy Artillery, who is charged with guarding the railroad from Athens, Tenn., to Strawberry Plains, Tenn.

* * * * * *

By command of Brigadier-General Tillson:

W. W. DEANE,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

FORT GAINES, March 15, 1865-4.30 p. m.

(Received 1.25 a. m. 23rd.)

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

Chief of Staff:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your telegram of the 4th [9th] instant in relation to the rebel navy and anticipated depredations on the Mississippi. Preparations indicating some designs of this character were discovered about the middle of last month, and commanders of posts and naval districts on the river were at once put on their guard. Admiral Lee's general order of February 28 (Numbers 47) is intended to meet this contingency.

E. R. S. CANBY,

Major-General.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER, New Orleans, La., March 15, 1865.

Lieutenant Colonel C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Asst. Adjt. General, Military Division of West Mississippi:

COLONEL: I have the honor to submit to your consideration the following report of information received at this office this 15th day of March, 1865: In Selma there is one arsenal, one naval ordnance works, ten iron foundries, eight machine-shops, one shovel factory, one card factory for carding cotton, two wagons factories, and one horseshoe factory. There is also a large rolling-mill in operation. Selma is the depot for all the iron and coal that is distributed through Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, the coal and iron mines being only forty-five miles above, on the Alabama and Tennessee Railroad, at Montevallo. The stage road to Montgomery from Selma is fifty-eight miles, and is good. There are three bridges on it of a very primitive style. The railroad from Selma to Demopolis, sixty miles distant, is in good order; from Demopolis to Meridian it is very bad, scarcely fit to travel on. The city of Selma is fortified on three sides with palisades. Fortifications-they are not worth much, for about a mile west of the city is a hill, which an invading force could hold and command the city. There are not 200 troops in the city, as they expect the citizens to defend the city in case of an attack. There are seven or eight iron furnaces in Bibb County from forty to seventy miles above Selma, on the Tennessee Railroad. Some of them are from three to ten miles distant from the road. The distance from Selma to Mobile by river is about 365 miles; there are no batteries on the river. There were fortifications on Choctaw Bluff, but the guns have been taken away and the place is now dismantled. The distance to Cahawba from Selma by the wagons road is ten miles, and is very bad. There were 700 Union prisoners confined