RECAPITULATION.

Orange and Alexandria .............................. $ 26,558.50

Norfolk and Petersburg ............................. 78.00

Virginia Central ................................... 9,440.00

Seaboard and Roanoke ............................... 203.00

Richmond and Petersburg ............................ 3,159.50

South Side ......................................... 2,922.00

Alexandria, Washington and Georgetown .............. 160.00

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Total .............................................. 42,521.00

[Table Numbers 9.]

Number of passengers and troops carried from July 1, 1865, to February 28, 1866.

Alexandria railroads ............................... 12,590

Winchester and Potomac Railroad .................... 41,200

Richmond and Danville Railroad ..................... 2,405

South Side Railroad ................................ 18,840

Richmond and Petersburg Railroad ................... 1,308

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Total .............................................. 76,343

WAR DEPT., PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL'S BUREAU,

Washington, D. C., March 17, 1866.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: The act of Congress creating the office of Provost-Marshal- General was approved March 3, 1863. I was appointed to it March 17, 1863.

Within a few weeks from that date the net-work of organization adopted under the law was extended over the loyal States and the counties and towns of the same, and the principal duties of the Bureau, to wit, the arrest of deserters, the enrollment of the national forces for draft, and the enlistment of volunteers, had been commenced.

When the Bureau was put in operation the strength of the Army was deemed inadequate for offensive operations. Nearly 400,000 recruits were required to bring the regiments and companies then in service up to the legal and necessary standard. Disaster had been succeeded by inactivity, and the safety of the country depended on speedy and continued re-enforcements of the Army. The insufficiency of the system of recruitment previously pursued had been demonstrated, and the Army was diminishing by the ordinary casualties of war, but more rapidly by the expiration of the terms for which the troops had engaged to serve. To meet the emergency a new system of recruitment was inaugurated. The General Government, through this Bureau, assumed direct control of the business which had heretofore been transacted mainly by the State governments. The provost-marshals of the several Congressional districts, aided by a commissioner and surgeon in each, were made recruiting officers. Springing directly from the people, and at the same time exercising the authority and representing the necessities and wishes of the Government, they reached the masses and were able, without abating the requirements of the conscription, to promote volunteering and to examine, enlist, muster, clothe, and forward recruits as fast as they could be obtained. The quotas of districts and sub-districts were made known, each locality was advised of the number it was required to furnish, and that, in the event of failure, the draft would follow.

This system (though administered under difficulties and discouragements further alluded to in the accompanying report) met the wants