We had very few of that class, and all the boatmen were ingnorant of the unused channel and it was very difficult to supply the army by this river. On the 21st of December Savannah was occupied by our army. The north channel of the river, the main and direct one, had been very throughly obstructed by the rebels by sinking in it heavy cribs filled with stones and brick. Admiral Dahlgren, after an examination of them, assured me that it was impracticable to remove them at that time, but learning from Major C. W. Thomas, quartermaster at Hilton Head, of a Mr. Orlando Bennett who was employed by the Government as a wrecker and who was provided with facilities for such work. I requested him to send for Bennett, who was then down on the Florida coast. He arrived and went to work, and was eventually entirely successful, but the process of removing the obstructions was necessary so slow that it was not completed until about the 20th of February, though a practicable passage was made by the 3rd of February. Until that time we had to use south channel, which was much smaller, and shallower than the other and very circuitious.

In this the rebels had left unobstructed a narrow passage for their own use, and through it light draft vessels came up to the wharves at Savannah immediately after our occupation of the place. It was necessary to unload all the large vessels by lighte below the city of from eight to twenty miles. I organized matters by assigning Captain George b. Cadwalader, assistant quartermaster, as chief of the depot and in charge of water transportation; Lieutenant L. R. Young, Thirty-fifth New Jersey Infatry, in charge of forage; Captain F. C. Butze, assistant quartermaster, in charge of quartermaster; s stores; Captain F. A. Seely, assistant quartermaster, in charge of clothing and equipage ; Lieutenant A. B. Howard, One hundred and seventh New York Infantry, in charge of corrals and surplus animals turned in from the army, and assignment of buildings; Lieutenant Fred. Hope, Sixtenth Iowa Infantry, in charge of wagon transportation and repair shops; Lieutenant C. F. Matterson, One hundred and third Illinois Infantry, in charge of shops for repair of vessels, and Lieutenant T. J. Lambert, Sixty-eighth Ohio Infantry, in charge of railroads and all captured railroad property. Under these officers the work of the depot proceeded successfully. All the supplies that arrived were landed and distributed; all repairs needed by vessels were promptly made by the shops under Lieutenant Matterson. All the unserviceable and surplus animals of the army, numbering about 5,000 were turned into the corrals of Lieutenant Howard, and from them were made up the depot teams. We captured in the city 213 cars and 8 locomotives. These were placed in charge of Lieutenant Lamber, who repaired and operated the Gulf railroad for a distance of ten from the city, and brought in over the road all the wood used by that portion of the army within the city and what was necessary for the citizens. The effective strength of the army was now about 66,000, with 35,000 animals, 2,690 wagons, and 503 ambulances. The object to be accomplished by the quartermater's department was to thoroughly refit the men, the animals, and the wagons, and to accumulate enough to load the train with the more essential articles necessary to the long march into North Carolina, which was the plan determined on by the commanding general. Time was very valuable, for he desired to approach Southern Virginia in time to co-operate in the spring campaign. As soon as I learned that a quantity of supplies had been sent by you to Pensacola, Fla., to meet the contingency of General Sherman's army coming to the coast at that place instead of at Savannah, I dispatched a steamer with orders to