The estimate of May 23, 1862, was intended for the maintenance of the fleet of steam-rams only till September 30, 1862, by which time it was hoped that the Mississippi would be opened, and that their services could be dispensed with. The failure of the attack on Vicksburg, however, has made it necessary to retain this fleet in service, and an estimate has accordingly been submitted for its maintenance during the remainder of this fiscal year.

The appropriations for steam-rams for the fiscal year were $400,000.

Lists of vessels employed in these fleets accompany this report.

RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION.

The numerous railroads of the United States have been extensively used in the transportation of troops and supplies. The collection and movement of a million of men to the front, the movements of large bodies of troops from one portion of the seat of war to another, and the transportation from the place of production and from the depots and arsenals to the places of issue and of consumption of the munitions of war, provisions, clothing, wagons, arms, artillery, &c., have involved an immense expenditure of public money among the various railroad companies.

During the first part of the fiscal year the service, though promptly performed, suffered from the complaints and rivalry of different corporations, and from the want of a uniform basis of compensation. The tariff issued by the Assistant Secretary of the War Department failed to give satisfaction, and a convention of railroad managers was called by you in this city in the spring of the present year, at which a uniform tariff for military railroad service was adopted, which has been accepted by all the railroads engaged in military transportation, with the exception of the Baltimore, and Ohio Railroad, the Baltimore and Washington Railroad, and of some railroads in Missouri, for which Congress, by special legislation, made other provision.

These several railroads have been excepted from the operations of the reduced tariff for military transportation in consequence of their peculiar situation, and the difficulty and danger attending the service within the limits of actual hostilities. Their bridges have been destroyed, their tracks torn up, their tunnels obstructed, and their engineers, and operatives fired upon.

The tariff agreed upon in the convention, though one which pays expenses and some profit to the companies, is at rates below those which the companies have generally received for their ordinary businee closing of the Mississippi and for a considerable portion of the past year of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, two of the great outlets for the productions of the Northwest, has thrown upon the other avenues to the coast a trade beyond their capacity.

Under these circumstances the companies deserve due credit for the patriotic manner in which they have performed the services required of them by the Government. Inexperienced officers have called upon them for transportation, military authority has sometimes been improperly called into use to compel them to do service upon insufficient, irregular, or imperfect authority and vouchers, and this has led to delay and irregularity in the settlement of their accounts.

The service has, however, in almost all cases, been performed with promptness and efficiency, and the companies have borne with