The attempt to credit particular towns and counties for volunteers heretofore raised has been fully tried by other States and abandoned as entirely impracticable.

The accounts of volunteers furnished were kept only with States, and any attempt at this time on the part of the General Government to assign its quotas in accordance with the claims of towns and counties for men heretofore furnished would lead to inextricable confusion. I state this after having made an earnest effort so to assign quotas in other States where the records of men furnished have been kept with fair accuracy.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. B. FRY,

Provost-Marshal-General.

ALBANY, October 14, 1863.

Colonel J. B. FRY,

Provost-Marshal-General:

I have the beg of you to use your influence with the Secretary of War to persuade him to telegraph the Governor direct to forward troops. The orders to mustering officers seem to me disrespectful to the State, and are very annoying to the Governor. The good of the service alone induces me to make this request.

J. B. STONEHOUSE,

Major, &c.

OFFICE OF CAVALRY BUREAU,

Washington, D. C., October 15, 1863.

Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR:

SIR: I have the honor to submit a report of the operations of the Cavalry Bureau from its organization up to this date:

On the 31st day of July, 1863, I received a copy of General Orders, No. 236, from the War Department, establishing a bureau to be designated as the Cavalry Bureau, and on the 1st of August I was furnished with a copy of General Orders, NO.237, from the War Department, designating me as its chief.

A few days afterward the Secretary of War, in a consultation he had with the General-in-Chief, the Quartermaster-General, and myself, decided several questions which had arisen, and amongst them it was decided that the Quartermaster-General should continue to furnish the Army with horses until the chief of cavalry should notify him that the Cavalry Bureau was able and ready to take this duty upon itself. Another was the establishment of a cavalry depot, capable of accommodating from 10,000 to 12,000 horses, sick and well, at some point on the Eastern Branch of the Potomac River, and between the mouth of the Eastern Branch and Fort Washington. I proceeded at once to make a very thorough examination of the country between these two points, and selected a place called Giesborough Point, on the south bank of the Eastern Branch, and at its confluence with the Potomac River. This selection was approved by the General-in- Chief, the Quartermaster-General, and by the War Department, and immediate steps were taken to commence its construction.

The location is considered an admirable one in every respect, being easy of access by land and water transportation, and one to which horses and supplies of all kinds can be brought, and from which they can be sent in any direction with the greatest facility.