one 4-horse teams. Lieutenant Baubie has under his charge and in service for Sixth Regiment Missouri State Militia fifteen 6-mule teams; Lieutenant Dexter, acting assistant quartermaster, post Springfield, sixteen horse teams, some 2 and some 4; Lieutenant Gibbs has in service of the Eighth Regiment Missouri State Militia ten 6-mule teams, one 4-mule team; Lieutenant Tracy has in use at the post of Lebanon, Mo., thirty-nine 6-mule teams; Lieutenant Morley, Second Arkansas, thirty-two 6-mule teams. The inclosed paper* will show the present distribution and employment of stock in my charge. That portion of it marked "corn-sheller" means simply that the train is north of Osage River procuring forage at the corn-sheller. Lieutenant Baubie's portion left yesterday, under my direction, for Rolla, Mo., to procure forage. The teams of Lieutenant Dexter are made up principally of recuperated horses, and mostly engaged at post duty procuring wood, water, & c. The transportation of Lieutenant Gibbs is dispersed at Ozark and Forsyth; the major portion of it at this place, occasionally to deliver forage picked up in Saint Clair and Henry Counties. The transportation of Second Arkansas Cavalry is scattered from Cassville, Mo., to Yellville, Ark., detachments being stationed at various points. It is principally engaged collecting forage. To meet daily wants at this place for cavalry horses, post teams, & c., requires a daily delivery of at least 13,000 pounds of grain at this post, exclusive of any hay.

To meet like daily demands at the posts of Hartsville, Cassville, Forsyth, Marshfield, Gadfly, points that must draw forage from this place, and at which there is no transportation, will require the constant use of one train of twenty wagons. The supply of rations for Fayetteville, 1,200 men, estimating the ration at 2 pounds per ration, will require the constant use of forty teams, or a daily delivery of 2,400 pounds at that point. The same amount of transportation will be required for the supply of Second Arkansas, now near Yellville. To get rations of grain to this place from Rolla, distant 118 miles, will require the constant use of 120 wagons. For transportation of subsistence stores to Fayetteville, with ordnance, hospital, and quartermaster supplies, 110 miles, forty wagons. For supplies to Yellville, Rolling Prairie, and encampments in that vicinity, forty wagons.

Berryville, Cassville, Hartsville, Forsyth, Mellville, Greenfield, Carthage, Ozark Mountain Store, all require supplies, but the demand cannot be accurately estimated from the shifting, changing nature of duty. There is a constant call for more transportation than I can supply, and should I undertake to herd the work mules daily, which ought to be done, it will correspondingly curtail extent of travel, and thus reduce the transportation. A very large portion of the transportation now being used here will be needless so soon as Arkansas and White Rivers shall become sufficiently high to insure safe and successful navigation of these streams. This may occur soon, but of this there is no certainty. Twenty years' acquaintance with those streams satisfy me that, at best, they will furnish a doubtful source of supply, and cannot be calculated upon as means of transportation for any considerable period of time in the year.

Respectfully,

R. B. OWEN,

Captain and Assistant Quartermaster.

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* Omitted.

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