year ending June 30, 1863, accompanied with the report of the different quartermasters and assistant superintendent under my control. Their reports contain details of the operation of the military telegraph in the respective departments to which they are assigned.

The report of Major Eckert, assistant superintendent, Department of the Potomac, is marked A; Captain Bruch, assistant superintendent, Departments of Ohio, Cumberland, and Mississippi, B.*; Captain David, assistant superintendent Department of western Virginia, Cl Captain Wade, Cleveland, Ohio, D; Captain Smith, assistant superintendent, Department of the Missouri, E; Captain Bulkley, assistant superintendent, Department of the Gulf, F.

Since my appointment as aide-de-camp, assistant quartermaster, and superintendent of the U. S. military telegraph, I have been the commanding officer in charge of the military telegraphs in the United States. My headquarters from the commencement of the fiscal year ending in June, 1863, up to the 1st of April, were at Washington, D. C. In April I was ordered by the Honorable Secretary of War to make a personal tour of observation of the military telegraph in the West and Southwest, and to make my headquarter in Ohio, In June, 1863, I was on special duty at Memphis, Tenn., and Cairo, Ill., by order of the Honorable Secretary of War.

It is my duty as commanding officer of the Military Telegraph Department to exercise a general supervision of all its lines, to give such orders and directions to the subordinate officers in this branch of the public service as may from time to time be necessary for the better conduct of the relative affairs and business therein, and to supervise the purchase of all the material which the wants or exigencies of the various departments may demand.

The military telegraph lines required by the Government have been constructed over an extensive and scatted territory, embracing the District of Columbia, parts of the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, and the Indian Territory.

Under the immediate direction of Major Eckert, assistant superintendent of the Department of the Potomac, 300 miles have been constructed during the year. Under the direction of Captain Smith, assistant superintendent of the Department of the Missouri, 548 miles have been constructed during the year, one mile of which was submarine. Under the direction of captain Brunch, assistant superintendent, Departments of the Ohio, Cumberland, and Mississippi, 510 miles have been constructed during the year. Under the direction of Captain David, assistant superintendent of the Deparles have been constructed during the same period. Under the direction of Captain Bulkley, assistant superintendent, Department of the Gulf, 300 miles have been built, one mile of which was submarine.

On the 1st day of July, 1862, there war 3,571 miles of land and submarine lines in working order. During the fiscal year 1,755 miles of land and submarine line were constructed, making the total number of miles and submarine military telegraph lines in operation during the year, 5,326, being length of line sufficient to girdle more than one-fifth of the circumference of the globe.

It should be borne in mind that a large proportion of this labor has been performed, as it were, in the presence of an armed foe. Some

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* See Series I, Vol. LII, Part I, p. 479.

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