accessible by river and rail, and there to have constructed wharves and buildings of a permanent character. By this means everything could have been arranged upon a far better and more convenient system. The uncertainty of continuing the depot at this depot at this point has also exercised a controling influence upon the manner in which supplies to meet the wants of the army have been procured. It not being deemed advisable to accumulate for a long period at one locality the vast quantity of stores necessary to the supply of such an army as that of the Potomac, only such quantities are purchased from time to time as are necessary to fill the orders which the current wants or exigencies of the service demand.

To Capt E. L. Hartz was assigned the duty of receiving and issuing forage, fuel, stationery, and miscellaneous, quartermaster's stores. Captain A. W. Putnam, took charge of the public animals, wagons, and other means of transportation, together with the class of stores appeartaining thereto. To Captain E. E. Camp was committed the task of receiving and providing with quarters all officers and troops, while Lieutenant Edward Ross was retained as an office assistant. On the 15th of August Captain George Gibson, Jr., having received an appointment in the Eleventh Regiment U. S. Infantry, was relieved by Captain D. G. Thomas, military store-keeper. On the 20th of August, 1861, Captain E. S. Allen, Firs Regiment District of Columbia Volunteers, was detailed for duty at this post as an acting assistant quartermaster, and stationed at the railroad depot to assist Captain Camp in the reception and care of troops. In addition to my duties as chief of the depot, I made all contracts and disbursements, except the payment of employes, and retained personal control of railroad and water transportation. September 7, 1861, Captain J. J. Dana, assistant quartermaster, U. S. Army, was ordered to report to me, and was at once placed in charge of the transportation department, vice Putnam, relieved. Having at the very outset perceived the necessity of there being, under the exclusive charge of this department, sufficient wharf room to receive such stores as might be sent to this point by water, one of my first official acts was to rent the wharves at the foot of G stree, then occupied by the New York and Virginia Steamship Company, that being by far the most desirable point in the city, combining at once large frontage, good depth of water, and convenience of access. The occupation of these wharves has continued up to this date, and the principall store-houses for commissary stores are now located at that point.

In the autum of 1861 it was found necessary to establish some point below the Long Bridge for the shipment of supplies to Alexandria, and in November the property at the foot of Sixth street was rented, the wharves repaired, store-houses erected, and a connection made with the track of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, by which loaded cars could be brought to the water's edge, and their contents transfered either to vessels or the store-houses without the necessity of wagon transportation. The blockade of the river by the rebel batteries established on the Potomac at this time, and consequent interruption of water communications with the North, necessitated the transportation by railroad of all the supplies for the large army which had then been collected in the vicinity of Washington, and taxed to its utmost the capacity of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Sixth Street Wharf was made the principal depot for the receipt of commissary stores, while the quartermaster's stores were unloaded at the Government warehouse near the Capitol. This arrangement was found fully to meet the exigencies of the case, and by means of the enlarged facilities thus secured sufficient