there were no store-houses whatever, and a very small wharf for landing stores. I immediately applied to Major-General Schofield for 1,500 men for guards and working parties, who were promptly furnished. I had brought some lumber from Savannah, and immediately started a saw-mill in the vicinity, getting out more bought all the lumber then in the harbor, which consisted of but a few thousland feet. I sent to New York for some carpenters and laborers, and to General Rucker, at Washington, for additional mechanies and a supply of felt roofing, in order to put up some temporary store-houses of the most economical kind. The work of enlarding our small wharf and of building our store-houses was pressed forward as rapidly as possible, adn the repair of the railroad beyond New Berne was making good progress under Colonel W. W. Wright. For depot teams I had to take some which were being landed for the Twenty-third Corps. The railroad being entirely occupied in forwarding rails and other materials used by the construction corps, I shipped large quantities of stores to New Berne in light-draft steamers through Hatteras Inlet and Pamlico Sound (there being eight feet of water by that route), and thence up the Neuse River to the bridge opposite Kinston. The Twenty-third Corps, which was being brought form Willmington to Kinston to cover the working parties on the railroad, was supplied in this manner.

On the 23rd of March General Sherman arrived at Goldsbourgh, where the commands of Generals Schofield and Terry joined his former army, making a force of 95,000 men, with 23,000 mules and 10,500 horses to be supplied; the number of men and animals rapidly increasing by re-enforcements from the North. General Sherman wrote me on the same day describing the destitution of his command, whose clothing was entirely worn out by their long and ardous march, and who were out of flour, bread, sugar, and coffee. His letter closed by saying that he "must be off again in twenty days, with wagons full, men reclad, &c." Two days later, the 25th, the railroad was completed to Goldsborough, and I commenced sending up subsistence and clothing, and later quartermaster's stores. There were about sixty cars and hour engines, which were used to the best advantage. Trains were loaded and unloaded and either end of the road with the greatest dispatch, and no one was allowed to travel on the cars toward the army except couriers and staff officers under orders. The numerous detachments arriving marched, officers and all, to the army. I still continued to ship via Hatteras Inlet, sending sail vessels containing grain to that place, whence their cargoes were taken ty steamers to New Berne, loaded there into river steamer and a few barges (which had been used by the troops of the Department of North Carolina in their former operations) and carried to Kinston, or Neuse River bridge, to which point General Sherman's wagons had been coming for supplies since the 20th instant. From March 29 to April 2 I was at New Berne, Kinston, adn Goldsborough, and while at the latter place, by order of General Sherman, made an equitable reapportionment of the transportation of the Fourteenth, Twentieth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, Tenth, and Twenty-third Army Corps, and the cavalry command, in view of the campaign which it was soon intended to begin. The transportation then consisted of 3,140 wagons and 570 ambulances. The railroad from Wilmington to Goldsborough was completed April 4. The rolling-stock on this road consisted of a very few captured cars. Some forage and subsistence were brought to Goldsborough by this line. By the 10th of April, sixteen days from the time the road was finished, and sooner than the earliest moment anticipated by General Sherman, the army was completely resupplied