and in making repairs to other works. At Roanoke Island the principal work has been on a line of breast-works near Fort Foster, and in completing this work. At Hatteras I have been engaged in repairing the scarp of Fort Hatteras, and in constructing a breakwater or sea-wall along the breach to hold the drifting sand, and thus prevent the waves from breaking across from sea to sound between Forts Hatteras and Clark. At Morehead (near Beaufort) a line of breast-works has been in course of construction.

The following-named officers have been serving with me in this department during the month of July, 1864; Captain F. U. Farquhar, U. S. Engineers, chief engineer; Eighteenth Army Corps; First Lieutenant Peter S. Michie, U. S. Engineers, assistant engineer, Department of Virginia and North Carolina; First Lieutenant W. R. King, U. S. Engineers, chief engineer, District of North Carolina, serving with Brigadier General I. N. Palmer, at New Berne, N. C.; First Lieutenant C. B. Phillips, U. S. Engineers, assistant engineer, Eighteenth Army Corps.

I have the honor to remain, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

G. WEITZEL,

Brigadier General and Chief Engineer Dept. of Va. and N. C.

By PETER S. MICHIE,

First Lieutenant, U. S. Engineers,

Actg. Chief Engineer,, Dept. of Virginia and North Carolina.

Brigadier General J. G. BARNARD,

Chief Engineer, Armies in the Field.

Numbers 247. Report of Captain Lemuel B. Norton, Signal Corps U. S. Army, Chief Signal Officer.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA,
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER,

September 2, 1864.

MAJOR:*

On June 14 a signal tower, 125 feet high, was finished at Cobb's Hill, which tower commands a view of Petersburg, a street therein, a portion of the Petersburg and Richmond Railroad, and turnpike, considerable of the Appomattox and James Rivers and a part of the enemy's lines in our front. Communication was opened between this tower and all those points which communicated with the old stations at its base, and also with a station which was placed at these headquarters as soon as the tower was finished.

One June 1 a station of observation was established on the river-bank, near Spring Hill fort, and opposite Port Walthall, and a signal officer placed there to observe and report movements of the enemy on the Petersburg and Richmond Railroad and turnpike, and along their works in the vicinity of the Port Walthall Junction. This station afterward proved to be a very important one, from the fact that no trains of the enemy's troops could be passed either way over the railroad in daylight, or columns moved along the turnpike, without the information being immediately given to the commanding general. From this station

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*Fort portion of report (here omitted) covering operations from April 19 to June 14, 1864, see Vol. XXXVI, Part II, p. 20.

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