Engineers employed on this work, but every negro that could be secured in the region through which the railroad passed was pressed into the service to expedite the work. When I first visited the burnt bridge on Elk River - this was about the last of June - I was told by the colonel commanding the Engineers that it would take one month of unremitting work to complete the repairs, on account of the impossibility to ferry and ford this river, and on account of the impassable mountains for loaded teams, which I have already alluded to. It was absolutely necessary for the trains around the break to make this detour by way of Elton until the very moment that the railroad was completed. To my certain knowledge every effort that mechanical skill and perseverance could do was used in making the repairs on this road, and it was a month, of not more, before the trains could be run over the road. During this time all the troops of General Buell had occupied their position from Tuscumbia on the left, where General Buell was left in command, to Battle Creek on the east, near Stevenson. About July 14, discovering that the supplies wagoning around the railroad break did not come fast enough either to supply the army day by day or to accumulate a quantity for any forward movement, I asked of General Buell the propriety of placing the troops on half rations, which was done, not only to accumulate supplies if possible, but to increase their industry in making everything they could out of the resources, if they could be so called, of the country. This was about July 14. From my representations that the railroad would not be completed in time to accumulate any supplies, and that it was absolutely necessary to look to some other line of communication, General Buell sent me to Tuscumbia, Ala., on our extreme left, about the middle of July, I think, to urge General Thomas to bring with him all the provisions he could haul and all the cattle he could drive with his column when he should be ready to march from Tuscumbia eastward to join the rest of our forces. He also ordered me to place myself in communication with Colonel Hawkins, chief commissary of General Halleck at Corinth, and to see if supplies could not be brought by rail from Memphis and by river to Eastport, thence wagoning to Iuka, thence by rail eastward to Decatur, on the Tennessee River, where the railroad bridge was also destroyed, where we expected to boat the stores on flat-boats across the river.

On my arrival at Tuscumbia General Thomas informed me that instead of bringing any supplies he was scarcely able to receive supplies sufficient for his own troops. On telegraphing to Colonel Hawkins, at Corinth, and that he must not look to him for any supplies. He also telegraphed that General McPherson informed him that he had but two locomotives to be used from Corinth to Tuscumbia, and that these were so heavy that it was pronounces impracticable by the railroad engineers to cross the railroad bridge at Bear River, about 8 or 9 miles east of Iuka on account of the weakness of the bridge. This was, I think, about the middle of July. At the same time General Thomas informed me that the guerrillas were threatening the line of railroad between Decatur and Tuscumbia and between Tuscumbia and Iuka and Corinth, and the Tennessee River had become so low that the navigation above Pittsburg Landing was only practicable for the very lightest draught boats.

The next day after I had left Tuscumbia on my return to Huntsville the rebels made a successful attack upon a line of railroad at a place called Courtland, captured the forces there guarding it, destroyed the railroad bridges, and effectually closed that line against us. In the mean time the Cumberland River had fallen so low that we were entirely dependent on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad for the arrival of our supplies in Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad to Stevenson, made us entirely dependent for our supplies in Northern Alabama upon the Decatur and Nashville road.

With the opening of the Chattanooga and Nashville road, which, as I have said, was destroyed on the very day it was opened by the capture of Murfreesborough, the troops had been put again upon full rations a few days previously, but with the capture of Murfreesborough we were obliged to fall back again upon half rations. In procuring supplies from Nashville nothing but the essentials - bread and meat, coffee and sugar - were thought of. Every effort was made to obtain as large a supply as possible of these articles; and, as I have said before, the country was thoroughly scoured for supplies, but with very little success. I myself went out on on of these expeditions in order to satisfy myself that every effort had been made to obtain supplies for the troops. I saw with my own eyes and heard the additional testimony of the people that from the time the rebellion had broken out their country had been stripped of everything in the shape of army supplies. At no time was it a country which produced more than grain enough for their own simple wants. I found much suffering for the want of food. The country from Duck River in Tennessee to the Tennessee River in Northern Alabama, and between the Nashville and Decatur Railroad on the west and the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad on the east, consisted mostly of cotton plantations, and had been up to the spring of 1862 planted with