FORT GAINES, August 27--8.30 a. m.

General BAILEY:

Send schooner with mortars back to Fort Perkins.

GORDON,

General.

General GORDON:

8.30 a. m.--There is a submarine telegraph cable ready for laying at Fort Powell.

KINNEY,

Lieutenant.

General GORDON:

10.45 a. m.--Two sea-coast mortars, 12-inch and 13-inch shells, and 20,000 pounds of powder are here. What shall be done with them? They came on steamer Saint Mary, not on a schooner.

BAILEY,

General.

10.45 a. m.--Sent above to Fort Gaines.

General BAILEY,

Fort Gaines:

10.50 a. m.--General Gordon wishes to know if yeast can be obtained at Pilot Town, Mobile Point, &c., so as to start bakeries on that shore.

ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL.

10.50 a. m.--Sent above to General Bailey's headquarters.

General GORDON:

11 a. m.--Yeast can be obtained at Fort Morgan.

D.,

Major of General B[ailey's] Staff.

11 a. m.--Sent above to Fort Gaines.

General BAILEY:

12 m.--Send mortars back without disembarking.

G[ORDON],

General.

Until the 23rd ultimo I remained alone on the flag-ship. Since then Captain Denicke has been on board.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. C. KINNEY,

First Lieutenant and Acting Signal Officer, U. S. Army.

[39.]

HEADQUARTERS SEVENTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Near Shadna Church, on the Atlanta and

West Point Railroad, August 29, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel WILLIAM T. CLARK,

Assistant Adjutant-General Dept. and Army of the Tennessee:

COLONEL: I have the honor to report that my command has thoroughly destroyed the Atlanta and West Point Railroad from my left toward Fairburn to the point where the Sixteenth Corps commenced operations. This destruction has been made complete by burning the ties, twisting and breaking the rails, and filling up the deep cuts with dirt and brush.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

FRANK P. BLAIR,

Major-General, Commanding.

[38.]