uprights, which have shrunk apart, and the eccentric of a 42-pounder needs adjustment.

Battery Tynes cannot be considered in good order and safe, because the magazine has only 3 or 4 feet of earth upon it. The ammunition is good and the magazine neatly kept, the powder being in a separate chamber from the shell, which should be in all the batteries. The guns are all in good order but one; a single-banded 32-pounder rifled is not yet mounted, the carriages and platforms being with it complete, and will be placed in position as soon as a gin can be provided.

Fort Pemberton requires new sponges and one carriage for a 32-pounder, but the one there now can be made (with iron bands) serviceable. The ammunition and magazines are reported good, but I was unable to see them, as the ordnance sergeant in charge had the keys at Fort Sumter.

At Battery Ryan, according to Captain Bowden's report, it does not seem that the best disposition has been made of the means at his command. He reports a deficiency of primers at one post and an excess at another. There are 15 fuses reported there where there is no use for them. I would suggest that the captains of batteries be instructed not to receive from the district ordnance officers any munitions, when offered, that are not adapted to the batteries for which requisition is made, as they can be of no service and only occupy space which might be appropriated more advantageously. If time and means can be found by the engineer department, shell rooms should be constructed so as to keep the ammunition, and projectiles separate, and bomb-proofs placed along the lines, and the magazines at Tynes completed.

In consequence of the excessive fatigue, attendant upon the unusually severe picket and other duty, to which the troops on James Island have for days past been subjected, some of the commands having been up for three or four nights consecutively, I did not cause them to appear upon parade or drill. Many of the commands could not parade more than one-third or one-fourth of their effective strength. They are all old troops and are disciplined and drilled in heavy and light artillery, and the camp police very fair, invariably under the circumstances named.

Company B, Siege Train, Captain S. P. Smith: The ammunition and implements generally in good order. New wheels are in part required for the carriages. The harness needs repairing, and the horses may be considered in fair condition only.

Chatham Light Artillery, Captain John F. Wheaton, has its guns, implements, and ammunition in fair order. One axle of the wheel is broken and should be repaired. The harness needs repairing and part of it renewing. The horses, from late hard service in Florida and upon James Island, do not look well and need recruiting. One spare wheel is reported as unfit for service, as it does not fit the axle; it should be exchanged.

Company A, First South Carolina Artillery, Captain F. D. Blake; This battery is in very fair condition, and its ammunition good; the harness needs repair and the horses recruiting. They look badly, principally from the hard service which they have been and yet are compelled to perform.

I think it would be of decided advantage, in view of the report above made of these batteries, if they were even, though temporarily,