FAIRFAX COURT-HOUSE, January 14, 1864.

Lieutenant-Colonel TAYLOR:

An officer of the One hundred and fifty-fifth New York, 1 mile west of Burke's, reports troops moving south of railroad last night. It was probably the squadron of our cavalry which went from Vienna to Wolf Run Shoals, as ordered.

R. O. TYLER,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

WAR DEPT., U. S. MIL. RAILROADS, SUPT. 'S OFFICE,

Alexandria, Va., January 14, 1864.

General RUFUS INGALLS,

Chief Quartermaster, Army of the Potomac:

GENERAL: The great loss of forage in transit, referred to in your telegram of last night, arises solely from stealing by the soldiers and teamsters stationed as guards along the road. It probably is not too strong a word to say that these guards, in some localities, are organized for plundering from trains. At and near Bull Run bridge they work with hooks, made from brake-rods stolen from wrecked cars, and in one case reported, with a long rope attached to the rod and with the other end made fast to a stump, the more effectually to pull off a bale of hay or barrel of pork after being harpooned. Setting aside the loss of the supplies, the act is most dangerous in probable effects, as the hay or barrel, rolling under the wheels, would wreck the train through Bull Run bridge into the waters below. Repeated cases are reported to me by conductors of the depredations by these guards at the wood-yard 1 miles east of Burke's, at Burke's Station, Bull Run bridge, Bristoe, and Nokesville.

If required, I can furnished statements, dully sworn to, of the stealing of grain and supplies at the above-mentioned points. Teamsters at the wood-yard 1 miles east of Burke's have stolen much grain from the cars, and not only do the soldiers steal the stakes and rails put around platform cars to protect grain, but the other day at Bristoe the soldiers there got upon a train which had taken siding to meet and pass another train and commenced with an ax to knock the sides out of new box-cars. To such testimony as this, which can be substantiated fully, Captain Wyman, acting assistant quartermaster at Alexandria, can add a similar experience of his own. Cars out of the way until we can find opportunity tog et hold of them again are more often perfectly serviceable than otherwise. The badly destroyed by soldiers to obtain the lumber, but the barres and other work on the locomotives were carried off. I have eyewitnesses to attest these facts, one of them one of my own master mechanics.

Yet General Crawford, on being notified of this stealing, after investigation (the stealing had been done), reported that "much of the material of the broken cars was used by my own people. " And I fully understand, too, the earnestness which General Crawford has always shown in his co-operation with us, his unvarying courtesy, and believe that he did all that the present organization of the soldiers