off. If the latter were occupied by an enemy with rifled or heavy guns both of these works could not be held more than one or two hours. The magazines of Battery Lee are worse than useless, being so damp (or wet rather) that powder cannot keep in them. This muss remedied forthwith by draining its site thoroughly into the river, by means of ditches, levees, and a flood-gate.

I then visited Lawton's Battery of seven guns (two 10-inch columbiads, two 8-inch columbiads, one 42-pounder, one 32-pounder, and one 32-pounder rifled) across the river and a little above Fort Jackson. It is not entirely completed, but appears to have good traverses between every gun. Its new magazine is not yet constructed; the old one is small and quite damp.

I then visited the naval battery, on a small island not far from Lawton's Battery. It has nine guns (seven 32-pounder, two 24 pounders, Blakely). It is unprovided with sufficient traverses, and can be enfiladed from beyond the obstructions. I have ordered one of its guns to be removed and a large traverse constructed in its place. The magazine is in as bad a condition as Lee's Battery. The defect will have to be remedied in the same manner. But the site of all these batteries is so low and marshy that no proper magazines can be constructed without settling beneath the material surface of the ground, unless built on piles. Instructions to that effect have been given to the chief district engineer, Captain McCrady.

On a small island near the city there is a small three-gun battery (three 32-pounders), Hutchinson Island Battery, enfilading the river, and Screven's Causeway, on the South Carolina side. It occupies an advantageous position, but apparently low and damp.

SAVANNAH, October 21, 1862.

I this day visited, with Brigadier-General Mercer, Colonel Gonzales, chief of artillery, and Captains Echols and McCrady, Engineers, the line of outworks, commencing with Carston's Bluff, on Saint Augustine Creek, 4 miles south fo Savannah. It is an open battery of six guns (two 8-inch columbiads, four 32-pounders), on a position commanding the navigation of creek at that point, about 300 yards wide. Vessels drawing 16 feet water can navigate it. The distance of Carston's Bluff Battery from the obstructions in Savannah River is about 2 miles and 1 mile from obstructions in Saint Augustine Creek. This battery is enfiladed by Oakland Island, about 700 yards off, and taken in rear by Whitemarsh Island, about 3,300 yards off.

I have ordered its traverses to be lengthened sufficiently; also door of magazine properly protected, and those islands cleared to see movements of enemy.

There are no guns bearing up the Saint Augustine Creek. This is a defect which must be remedied. I have ordered a three-gun battery to be constructed at Greenwich Bluff, an advantageous position about 1 mile up from Carston's Bluff. There is also a three-gun battery on bluff north of Carston's Bluff, commanding low ground between the latter and Fort Jackson. Carston's Bluff is a most important position, which, falling into the hands of the enemy, would completely command the rear of Fort Jackson and Battery Lee at the short rifled-gun range of 1 1/8 miles.

I will here remark that an unfortunate mistake was made in locating the obstructions and defenses at Savannah River. The two are too far apart, 1 1/8 miles, and those defenses are entirely under the control of batteries placed by an enemy on bluffs from Fort Boggs to Carston's