uary and February of the quartermaster's department it will reduce them considerably, but these men have worked faithfully through the stores at all hours, and now that they have come to their senses and willing to take 25 cents per day instead of 40 I will have to pay them myself for they deserve it, and hereafter no men will be employed except on your order, that is regularly detailed men for the work of any of the departments. The signing of the rolls by one clerk several times occurs from the fact that those men whom he signs for left the office for their regiments before the men on the pay-roll were paid and left an order with him to draw their money and send it to them, which I saw was done and the money sent to them. I have their orders and receipt. If they are needed I will send them. This occurs from the ever changing state of my office and camp, but if such is wrong it will not be done again; but as the men trusted to my honor in the matter to be faithful to them, as they have been to me, I thus acted. The working of my engineer corps on Sundays has been a work of necessity, for you will notice that all my arrivals from Richmond are on Sunday morning and evening, causing not only the engineer corps to work, but every department is busy on the day and night always on arrivals, and especially before I made my arrangement for the use of the barracks at College Green. I have never been able to leave my officers but one Sunday since the 27th of last August and then I left the church before the service was over to care for 1,200 men who had just arrived. Their wants must be attended to on Sunday or any other day; but this might be altered. The flag-of-truce boat always leaves the fort on Friday for City Point and returns on Saturday, bringing them always here on Sunday, or very early on Monday morning. My seven-days' report required on Monday has to be made from my Saturday returns, hence to send it off it must be finished on Sunday as well as my reports for General's Schenck. As far as my quartermaster's and commissary departments are concerned I have them arrangement so that no work is done on Sunday except on the arrival of men. But these headquarters have no stoppage; there is always as much to be done on Sunday as any other day.

I have stopped all buildings since your last letter save finishing those on hand which required me to purchase some more lumber to finish with, but nothing more will be done in building. I had some 400 trees cut down in the woods dressed, and those I am having hauled in and piled up here which can be drawn to the new site with much ease, as I find upon examination of the woodland on the new site that there is not much good timber. When I get this done I will stop the work of the engineers as directed and will stop now if you think I had better not draw any more logs. The officers who allowed to sleep in town are here from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. ; those who are sick and in the hospital at Annapolis dine in the city whom I have no control over; they are under the orders of Doctor McParlin. All the officers I have here for duty live in camp and those were allowed to sleep in town, they being sick, I ordered to come to camp at once in obedience with your order. My orders have always been to officers they must live in camp or hospital, but when I could get eight hours' work from a sick officer every day and know that if he slept in camp that I could get no work out of him at all, I preferred the former, always being short of officers. I inclose you a statement* of bills due, as I did in my return to you on the 23rd instant, marked "bill unpaid," and I have added to it the bills

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* Omitted.

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