of the river: the voting population is about 2,000; Madison, about 800; Limestone, 1,200; Lauderdale, about 1,800; De Kalb (on the north side of the river), say, 1,400; Marshall, about 1,400; Morgan, 1,200; Lawrence, about 1,500; Franklin, about 1,800. The usual calculation there is ten inhabitants to a vote.

Question. Does that include the black as well as the white population?

Yes, sir.

Question. Was there subsistence-meat, corn, &c.- enough in those counties in July, 1861, to carry that population through to the next year?

I have no doubt they get through upon it, but I am satisfied it was a short allowance. I knew that on the south side of the river they were suffering for the substantials of life.

Question. In that term " substantials" what is included?

I mean meat and bread.

Question. Do you know, judge, whether the railroad from Huntsville to Stevenson is now in use by the rebels?

i so understand from the newspapers and rumors; but that they are running but one engine from Bridgeport to Decatur on that line of railroad.

General Buell desiring to ask further questions of the witness on the war policy, the court was cleared for a decision, when it was decided not to depart from the established rule.

JOHN B. YATES (a witness for the defendant), being duly sworn by the judge-advocate, testified as follows:

By General BUELL:

Question. State your name and position in the service of the United States, if you please.

John B. Yates; acting major of the First Michigan Engineers and Mechanics.

Question. Have you a commission in that regiment? State for what rank it is.

Captain Company A.

Question. Were you on duty in North Alabama last spring, under the command of General Mitchell?

Yes, sir; I was.

Question. Did you have anything to do in constructing what was called the gunboat Tennessee while you were there?

I had the charge of the construction of the gunboat Tennessee while I was there.

Question. State as particularly as you can what its construction was, its dimensions, and its subsequent operations.

It was made from a horse-ferry boat that ran from Whitesburg, 10 miles south of Huntsville, to the other side of the Tennessee River. Its dimensions were 52 feet long, if I remember correctly, and about 11 to 12 feet wide. It was built in the first place for the purpose of a gunboat, to run up and down the Tennessee River from Whitesburg to Bridgeport. The sides in the first place had barricades on them filled with cotton, to protect the men on the boat from the guns of the guerrillas; there was also one gun of Captain Loomis' First Michigan Battery. The machinery was a stationary engine, taken from a saw-mill and put on the boat. The intention was in the first place to case the boat with iron, to ward off more effectually the bullets of the guerrillas, but the tonnage of the boat was not sufficient to support it so as to make it bulle-proof. After it was discovered that it would not answer the purpose it was built for it was taken down the river to Decatur and there used as ferry-boat by order of General Mitchell, who determined it could not be used with safety to