HDQRS. U. S. MIL. TELEGRAPH, MIL. DIV. OF THE TENNESSEE,
Nashville, Tenn., July 20, 1865.

Bvt. Major General M. C. MEIGS,

Quartermaster-General, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: In obedience to General Orders, Numbers 39, current series, Quartermaster's Department, dated July 1, 1865, I have the honor to r; eport that at the commencement of the year, which ended on t he 30th of June last, I was on duty at headquarters Army and Department of the Cumberland, Major General G. H. Thomas commanding, then in the field near Marietta, Ga., in the capacity of assistant superintendent U. S. Military Telegraph, having acted in that capacity since the date of my appointment, October 27, 1863. During the month of July I accompanied the advance from Marietta to the position in front of Atlanta, keeping open communication with the rear by an ordinary line of telegraph of two wires and throwing field lines to the right and left, as ordered-to the right as far as the Sweetwater from pace's Ferry, and to the left from Pace's to Power's Ferry and from Marietta to Roswell, in all about forty-five miles of lines. These lines were all constructed during the first eight days of the month, and were intended to facilitate the crossing of the Chattahoochee, becoming useless and being removed as soon as that movement was completed. I immediately after the engagement of the 20th at Peach Tree Creek my working parties crossed the Cahttahoochee at the railroad bridge and pushed the reconstruction of the permanent line along the railroad to the third mile post, which brought it within three-quarters of a mile of the rebel defenses. From this point a field line to the right and left connected the headquarters of Generals Sherman and Thomas wirht those of such officers as they desired and with the points of observation establsihed by the Signal Corps. This line extended to the left as far as the position south of the Augusta railroad, which was attacked by the enemy on the 22d, and to the right as far as the right was extended before the abandonment of the attack in front and the movement on Jonesborough. This line was at one time twenty miles long, was continued in use twenty-eight days, offices having been opened and worked at twenty-three different points, more than one-half of which were exposed to the fire of the enemy. When the army moved on the communications of the enemy south of Atlanta, this line became useless and was taken down, the work being done after the movement had commenced, the party accompanying the march of the army until it reached Campbellton, where it recorssed the Chattahoochee and returned to t he camp of the Twentieth Army Corps, north of the river, near Pace's Ferry, and there awaited the result of the movement. During the month of August I also rebuilt entirely, using new poles and insulators, and to a large extent new wire, the line supon the railroad toi Chattanooga, that I might be able to render that assistance to a U. S. military railroad management which the necessities of the service demanded.

On the morning of September 2 I again crossed the Cahttahoochee River at the railroad bridge, and on the next morning opened an office in Atlanta. During this month I built a line from Roswell through Cross Keys and Decatur to Atlanta, and thence via East Point to Campbellton along the line occupied by our forces, with offices at headquarters of the army corps and cavalry commanders. This work was completed by the 13th, and on that day, by permission of the major-general commanding, I left Atlanta to return to this post, having been absent from my office nearly five months. The line along the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad from Strawberry Plains to Bull's Gap was also