Owing to the great pressure upon the manufactures of machinery, the scarcity of labor, difficulty of obtaining proper materials, and of procuring transportation to Nashville on the over-crowded railroad lines of the North, the mill did not go into operation until April 1, 1865.

It was employed in manufacturing rails for the United States until October 5, 1865, when it was sold to the highest bidder, after two months" advertisement, for $175,000. It was in operation six months and five days, and in that time manufactured 3,818 tons and 1, 184 pounds of new rails at a cost of -

For local (145,897 bushels).........................$36,474.25

For labor .......................................... 98,776.39

-----------

Total ..............................................135,250.64

Average cost per ton, $35.42.

These were disposed of as follows:

Tons. Pounds. To repair tracks ................................... 466 2,066

Sold to Southern railroads .........................3,351 1,358

-------

------

Total ..............................................3,818 1, 184

The quantity sold realized in cash the sum of $269,128.58.

ROLLING-STOCK.

In the preceding statements an account is given of the quantity of rolling-stock provided for each department and the final disposition made of it. Those statements embrace only the number in active service in each case. In the fall and winter of 1864 an additional supply was provided in view of probable wants for the spring campaign of 1865, but the close of the war rendered it unnecessary, and it was subsequently sold at the points where manufactured, or where it had been stored to await events. Thirty-five locomotives and 492 cars, of five-feet gauge, were built for the Military Division of the Mississippi and North Carolina; fifty cars, of four feet eight and a half inch gauge also were provided for Virginia and North Carolina. Ten platform cars, of four feet eight and a half inch gauge, had been purchased at an early day and used on the railroads of the Western States, to transport cars of the five-feet gauge from the manufacturers" works to Jeffersonville, opposite Louisville. Locomotives, five-feet gauge, provided but not used, 35. Cars-- five-feet gauge, for Military Division of the Mississippi and North Carolina, 519; four feet eight and a half inch gauge, for Virginia and North Carolina, 50; four feet eight and a half inch gauge, for car transportation, 10; total, 579.

Of these engines and cars one of the ten cars was destroyed in service and all the rest were sold for cash.