[Indorsement.]

Respectfully forwarded.

Captured guns in Resaca, Rome, and Atlanta, though credited to General Thomas, belong equally to all the armies.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

Numbers 6.

Report of Captain Orlando M. Poe, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, Chief Engineer, of operations July 1-October 31, 1864.

WASHINGTON, D. C., October 8, 1865.

SIR: In accordance with the circular from the Engineer Bureau, dated, September 2, 1865, I have the honor to report as follows, concerning "the engineer operations and the works of attack and defense conducted under my superintendence during the year ending June 30, 1865:"

This report will naturally be divided into four parts, viz:

First. The Atlanta campaign, from the 1st of July, 1864, to the occupation of the city, September 2, 1864.

Second. The new defenses of Atlanta and the Savannah campaign, including the time from the 3rd of September, 1864, to the 25th of January, 1865.

Third. The campaign from Savannah, Ga., to Goldsborough, N. c., from January 25, 1865, to March 22, 1865.

Fourth. The campaign from Goldsborough, N. C., to Raleigh, N. C., and the march from Raleigh to Washington City, from April 10, 1865, to 20th of May, 1865.

The operations connected with the march of General Sherman's army, extending over a great portion of the Southern States, were of a very rapid character. Such of them as legitimately belonged to the engineer department were so intimately blended with the whole that it is impossible to separate them. In order to explain clearly why bridges were built and roads made in the localities where they were, it will be necessary to give the movements of the army come what in detail when the reasons will generally be evident. The labors of the engineers were directed to facilitate these movements, and always with a distinct idea of their object.

First. The Atlanta campaign, from the 1st of July, 1864, to the occupation of the city, September 2, 1864.

On the 1st of July, 1864, I was on duty as chief engineer with the army commanded by Major W. T. Sherman, then before Kenesaw Mountain, a position to which I had been assigned by Special Field Orders, Numbers 1, headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi, dated Chattanooga, Tenn., May 3, 1864. At that time the engineer organization for the army in the field was altogether inadequate. There were within the limits of the military division the following engineer organizations, viz: First Michigan Engineers and Mechanics, and First Missouri Engineers. Both these regiments belonged to the Army of the Cumberland, and were distributed as fol-