the Cumberland, the Tennessee, Lower Mississippi, White, Arkansas, and Upper Missouri Rivers, and for which the supply has been furnished almost entirely from Saint Louis, cincinnati, or Louisville. In addition to the ordinary transportation of soldiers, their munitions and supplies, large expeditions have at various times been fitted out, to the most important of which I will briefly allude. The first movement by water after the commencement of hostilities on the Western waters, was that of about 2,000 men under the command of General Lyon, who embarked on four boats at Saint Louis on the 15th of June, 1861, and proceeded up the Missouri in pursuit of General Price, a pursuit resulting in the battle and victory of Booneville on the 17th of the same month. On the 1st of August following, about 4,000 troops embarked upon eight boats, "the Great Fleet," as it was termed in the papers of the day, under command of General Fremont, and proceeding down the river landed at Cairo and Bird's Point on the 3d. On the 6th of November following, 3,000 men, under the command of General Grant, embarked on board transports at Cairo, and proceeding down the Mississippi, landed on the following morning, attacked and fought the enemy at Belmont, opposite Columbus, and returned to Cairo the same day, having accomplished the object of the expedition. On the 2nd and 3rd of February, 1862, general Grant embarked 15,000 troops on transports at Cairo and proceeded to Paducah, and on the day following advanced up the Tennessee in connection with the navy under Commodore Foote, capturing Fort Henry on the 6th of the same month. Soon after, six regiments, under the orders of General Grant, re-embarked, moved down the Tennessee and up the Cumberland, a distance of 110 miles, where, with the troops proceeding overland from Fort Henry, they captured Fort Donelson on the 12th. On the 13th April, 1862, under instructions of General Halleck, I sent about thirty transports with numerous barges to New Madrid, upon which the army of General Pope, 16,000 strong, including four regiments of cavalry, ten batteries of artillery and their animals (numbering in all nearly 5,000), were embarked on the 15th and proceeded down the river opposite Fort Pillow, then in possession of the rebels, which place they left on the 18th, and passing up the Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee, a distance of 475 miles, arrived at Pittsburg Landing on the 21st to re enforce our army in its advance on Corinth. Under like instructions from General Halleck, in April, 1862, I sent transports to Cape Girardeau, where the brigades of Generals Asboth and Jeff. C. Davis, consisting of over 8,000 troops, were embarked on their arival from the interior of Arkansas, and two days thereafter reached pittsburg Landing, 335 miles distant, for a like re-enforcement of the army moving on Corinth.

On the 11th of December, 1862, I received orders from General Allen at Saint Louis, under a telegraphic dispatch from General Grant, dated December 9, near Oxford, Miss., requiring sufficient transportation to be at Memphis by the 18th, to move General Sherman's army of about 40,000 men, including cavalry, artillery, and animal transportation, for an attack on Vicksburg. It being midwinter, when there were not exceeding eight boats suitable for the purpose in the harbor of Saint Louis, and during a period of great scarccity of fuel, it was deemed impossible to comply with the order, but by sending to various points, taking all boats arriving, and by seizing all private coal in the city, the necessary transportation of between seventy and eighty boats was secured and placed in readness at Memphis, 450 miles from Saint Louis, on the evening of the 18th. Within forty hours thereafter the army was embarked, the boats fueled, and the fleet on the way to its destination, where, at the