[Third indorsement.]

WAR OFFICE,

February 7, 1865.

ADJUTANT-GENERAL:

Please note the President's suggestion, and refer to General Lee accordingly.

By order of the Secretary of War:

R. G. H. KEAN,

Chief of Bureau of War.

[Fourth indorsement.]

ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,

February 9, 1865.

Respectfully referred to General R. E. Lee:

By order of Adjutant and Inspector General:

JNO WITHERS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Fifth indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS,
February 11, 1865.

Respectfully returned.

I have sent all the troops from this army that can be spared. The Army of Tennessee is ordered to South Carolina, and a part of it arrived. If the citizens of Georgia and South Carolina will fill up its ranks it will be able to protect the country.

R. E. LEE,

General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., ENGINEER BUREAU,

Richmond, Va., January 3, 1865.

Honorable james A. SEDDON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor to report the following injuries to the man railroads in Georgia done by the enemy in General Sherman's advance from Kingston to Savannah, viz:

First. Western and Atlantic road (Georgia State road): Track and bridges from Atlanta to Etowah River, inclusive, are destroyed. Beyond Etowah no injury of moment is reported. Length of track destroyed, about 46 miles; length of bridges at Chattahoochee and Etowah, 1,200 feet. The Governor of Georgia has sent his agents to examine and report as to the extent of injury to this road, the property of the State, but at the time of Captain Grant's report, 16th of December, no portion of the repairs had been made. All the labor and materials that can be obtained by the Government will be first applied to the reconstruction of the Georgia road (from Augusta to Atlanta), and to the Atlanta and West Point road, with a view to get one connection as soon as possible.

Second. Georgia road: The work to be done on this road is comprised in three important bridges--one over the Oconee River, the other two over smaller streams--and thirty-eight miles of track. Of the