It would be easy, though it would extend this report to great a length, to introduce in full the testimony on which, in all these points, the judgment of this bureau is founded. It is believed to be unnecessary, however, inasmuch as the court have, by its findings, so emasculated the allegations of the charge as to absolve the accused of all responsibility for the catastrophe. Their findings under the specifications are believed to be fully warranted by the evidence, in the face of which they could scarcely have arrived at any different conclusions. How, then, however they could proceed to inflict upon the accused a punishment so terrible for offenses of which they virtually find him not guilty, this bureau fails to understand. It is recommended that the sentence by disapproved and that Captain Speed by publicly exonerated from the charges which have been made against his character as on officers. it is not the design of this report to cast censure upon the conduct of Captain Williams. He is shown to have been absent at the North until the day before the steamer Sultana sailed with her living freight, and cannot, therefore, be held responsible for arrangements made before his return. His persistence in confining the entire detachment of paroled men to the Sultana is believed to be accounted for partly by his knowledge that the agents of other vessels were attempting to obtain their share of patronage by bribery, which, for a short time, be believed Captain Speed to have yielded to, though he soon after publicly admitted his mistake; partly also by a conclusion which is shown to have existed in his mind as to the number of those who were to be sent North; and in part by the extreme difficulty of effecting a division at so late a period. That Captain Hatch felt a consciousness of some responsibility for the disaster is believed to be shown by the fact that though three times subpoenaed to give his testimony at the trial, and though the trail was prolonged three months that his presence might be secured, he refused to obey the summons; and that, notwithstanding every effort was made to compel his presence, the Secretary of War being finally appealed to order his arrest as guilty of contempt, it was found necessary to finish the trial without his evidence. *

J. HOLT,

Judge-Advocate-General.

SECRETARY OF WAR.

Numbers 5. Report of Actg. Ensign James H. Berry, U. S. Navy. U. S. IRON-CLAD ESSEX, Memphis, Tenn., April 27, 1865.

SIR: I was aroused from my sleep this morning by a call from Mr. Earnshaw, who informed me that the steamer Sultana had blown up and was burning at a short distance up the river, and that the river was covered with drowning men. I ordered all the boats manned, which was done immediately, and I went in the cutter, which boat was the first ready, and we went out to the middle of the river. The morning was very dark, it being about one hour before daylight, and the weather overcast, and the shrieks of the wounded and drowning men was the only guide we had. The first man we picked up was child and so benumbed that the couldn't help himself, and the second one died a short time after he was taken on board. We soon drifted down

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*Captain Speed was honorably mustered out of service September 1, 1866.

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