HEADQUARTERS SECOND ARMY CORPS,
November 9, 1864.

General WILLIAMS:

The following is the election returns of the Thirty-sixth Wisconsin Volunteers, First Brigade, Second Division, Second Army Corps: Lincoln, 86; McClellan, 51.

WINF'D S, HANCOCK,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS SECOND ARMY CORPS,
November 9, 1864.

Major-General MEADE:

The election result in the First Maine Heavy Artillery sum up, Lincoln, 212; McClellan, 22. This report could not sooner be sen, as part of this regiment is at Cedar Level and did not make their report till this moment.

WINF'D S. HANCOCK,

Major-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. FIRST Brigadier, THIRD DIVISION, SECOND CORPS,
November 9, 1864.

Captain J. P. FINKELMEIER,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Third Div., Second Army Corps:

CAPTAIN: In compliance with directions from corps and division headquarters. I have the honor to submit the following report on the deficiencies in the amount of rations that the men of my command should have on hand, according to the issues from the commissary department:

First. The deficiencies do not arise from wasting, except in one single article of food which has been lately issued to the men and proved very unsatisfactory to them. I mean the codfish, which cannot be conveniently cooked or carried by the men, which they positively dislike, and which, in many cases, they have thrown away. In fact, the substitution of codfish to meat rations has proved profitable to nobody but to the contractors who furnish the article to the Government.

Second. No voluntary wasting of rations has occurred, and any involuntary one is mostly attributable to the poor quality of the haversacks recently issued, which will not, in rainy weather, protect sufficiently the contents. The heavy rain that occurred during the recent movement on the Boydton road and those succeeding it (where the men on picket had no way to secure them from the weather) have damaged the rations, especially the bread, so as to make quite a deficiency.

Third. The duties of the men are heavy and the rations small, even when issued in full. But this is not always the case, as the men do not always receive their allowance of beans, potatoes, &c. There are also some complaints from company commanders that the men do not get full weight in the issues, and there is an instance (in the Seventeenth Maine Volunteers) where the rations of bread have been materially increased by a company commanders insisting that the bread should be weighed.

Fourth. It is an acknowledged fact that the men eat more during the cold than during the warm weather, principally when working hard.