the various bodies of troops in the immediate vicinity of Hilton Head and at this post. This duty was closed to-day, and it gives me great pleasure to report that I have found the officers and soldiers at Beaufort, at Fort Pulaski, and on Hilton Head Island in condition of health, discipline, drill, and esprit highly satisfactory.

If consistent with the interest of the service, I most earnestly beg that my old division may be transferred to the Department of the South and once more placed under my command. I do not make this application without due reflection, and I make it because I am satisfied that when this department comes to be re-enforced, which I trust may be speedily done, I am accomplish more with the troops who have been trained by me, who know me personally, and to whom I am devotedly attached, than with twice the number of troops to whom I am an entire stranger. I am satisfied that while a soldier may enlist through motives of patriotism he fights for his general.

I feel it my duty to inform the Secretary of War that the independent command given to General Saxton has not thus far been productive of the best results. Some friction, and even collision, has taken place already between the officers of the two independent commands, and I am entirely certain that no matter how harmoniously General Saxton and myself may be able to work together there will be trouble constantly arising among the subordinates.

It is my duty to report to the War Department and to the Government that I find a feeling prevailing among the officers and soldiers of prejudice against the blacks, founded upon the opinion that in some way the negroes have been more favored by the Government and more privileges granted to them than to the volunteer soldier. I do not pretend to say that this feeling has any foundation in fact, but I am entirely certain that under the Existing organization there is little hope of allaying or destroying a feeling widely prevalent and fraught with the most injurious consequences. I would therefore earnestly recommend that the officers in charge of the negroes, the plantations, and the interests attaching the department. I am not prompted to make this recommendation by any desire to expend my own authority or to increase the responsibilities already devolved upon me, but solely in the hope that the change proposed will diminish, if not destroy, all the causes of controversy which have hitherto existed.

I have been diligently engaged in the study of the maps presenting the topography and hydrography of the region extending from Charleston to Savannah, and I am not quite sure that it is possible, even with the force now under my command, to do something to harass and annoy the enemy. While it is not my intention, without sufficient a blow, no matter how unimportant, at the enemy's lines of intercommunication.

May I venture to ask your attention to the promotion of my staff, which now only requires the sanction of the President, since the troops in the department now consisted the Tenth Army Corps.

The names of the officers recommended by me are in the hands of the President.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

O. M. MITCHEL,

Major-General, Commanding Department of the South.

25 R R-VOL. XIV