north or south, subject, however, to the most stringent orders from this officer from day to day. Not a citizen nor a pound of private freight was allowed to pass to our from the front except upon my order or that of the department commander, and the shipment of even public freight was daily regulated by written orders from this office. I shut down remorselessly upon everything and everybody except what belonged peculiarly and necessarily to the army, and this soon proved to be a great step in the right direction.

To correct thievery and robbery, so prevalent on the roads, I at once issued an order, a copy of which you will find herewith, marked A,* and subsequently a second order, a copy of which is also herewith, marked B.* These orders I printed also on card boards and tacked them in every car and on every station house along the railroad, thus scattering them broadcast throughout the length and breadth of the department. To prevent these orders being a mere brutum fulmen I also organized a corps of special agents and detectives, and directed that no train should leave Nashville without one of these men upon it. The good results of these measures were speedily apparent and it was not long before the evils complained of were to a great extent abated. About this time Captain A. M. Tucker, assistant quartermaster volunteers, arrived here, and was assigned to duty as receipting and disbursing officer of the railroads in charge of all moneys and property pertaining thereto, thus completely separating the working of the roads from ordinary business of the quartermaster's department, of which Captain Crane had charge. With two offices thus at work at the railroads, I now addressed myself to the general superintendent of U. S. Military Railroads here, Mr. J. B. Anderson, and the superintendent of the Chattanooga road especially, Mr. Frank Thomson. I urged upon these gentlemen the importance of bending every energy to the thorough reformation and repair of the Chattanooga road, to the quintupling or arupling of our rolling-stock, and to the reconstruction and reopening of the Tennessee and Alabama, the Nashville and Northwestern, and the Edgefield and Kentucky Railroads at the earliest hour practicable. The first of these roads (the Tennessee and Alabama), as you are aware, would give us a double line for supplies from here to Stevenson, a great and important desideratum. The second (Nashville and Northwestern), by a distance of only seventy-five miles, placed us in communication with the Tennessee at Reynoldsburg (now called Johnsonville) at a point where the river is always navigable for large steamers from Paducah the year round, thus opening to us at once the resources of the Northwest instead of by the long and slender route of 185 miles to Louisville, through the heart of a disaffected, if not disloyal, region. The third road (the Edgefield and Kentucky) took us at once to the Cumberland at Clarksville, the foot of Harpeth Shoals, a distance of sixty miles, to which points small steamers can usually come all months in the year. With these three roads in successful operation and well equipped, in addition to the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, I felt sure that I could supply the armies concentrating at Chattanooga, no matter how many men might be assembled there. Mr. Anderson always met my suggestions kindly, and Mr. Thomson especially, with whom I had chiefly to do, gave his whole heart and energies to the work. Meanwhile, Sherman had marched overland from Memphis, the armies had concentrated at Chattanooga, the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge were fought and won, and our forces were at least

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*Omitted.

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