Numbers 62. Reports of Brigadier General Bushrod R. Johnson, C. S. Army, commanding division, &c.

HUNTSVILLE, ALA., March 4, 1862.

SIR: Between the hours of 11 and 12 p. m., on February 6, I received at Nashville, Tenn., a telegraphic dispatch of same date from Major W. W. Mackall, assistant adjutant-general to General A. S. Johnston, commanding the West Department of C. S. Army, ordering me to take instant command of Fort Donelson.

In compliance with this order, I proceed by the first boat to the point designated. On my way I reported to Brigadier-General Pillow, in Clarksville, from whom I received an additional order to assume command at Fort Donelson. Upon my arrival, on the night of February 7, I found at the fort the troops which, under Colonel A. Heiman, had reached there during the previous night from Fort Henry, consisting of the Tenth Regiment Tennessee Infantry, Lieutenant Colonel R. W. MacGavock; Fourth Regiment Mississippi Infantry, Colonel Drake; eight companies of Twenty-seventh Regiment Alabama Infantry, Colonel Gee; Tennessee Battalion, Colonel Browder; two companies of Alabama Battalion, Major Garvin; detachment of light artillery, Captain Culbertson; Ninth Battalion Tennessee cavalry, Lieutenant-Colonel Gantt; one company of Tennessee cavalry, Captain Milton.

Also the forces stationed at Fort Donelson, consisting of the Thirtieth Regiment Tennessee Infantry, Colonel J. W. Head; Forty-ninth Regiment Tennessee Infantry, Colonel J. E. Bailey; Fiftieth Regiment Tennessee Infantry, Colonel Sugg; Fifty-third Regiment Tennessee Infantry, Colonel Abernathy; five companies of Tennessee infantry, Colonel S. H. Colms; one company light battery, Captain Maney.

The batteries of heavy artillery were manned by two companies of infantry, one commanded by Captain Bidwell, detached from Colonel Head's regiment, and the other commanded by Captain T. W. Beeaumont, from Colonel Sugg's regiment of Tennessee volunteers.

With and after my arrival at Fort Donelson re-enforcements were added which it will be unnecessary here to enumerate. Subsistence stores and munitions of war were being daily landed from transports, and, without adequate means of transportation, required storage. Work for the improvement of the original plan of the defenses was in hand; the sick had to be sent away to hospitals, and troops had to be assigned and moved to their positions without definite knowledge of the strength of the re-enforcements destined for the place. Such were the duties, with many others incidental to the nature and condition of the command, to which my attention was immediately directed.

On February 9, however, General Pillow arrived and assumed command, and having disposed of the forces for the defense of the place, assigned me to the command of the left wing, consisting at that time of-

Colonel A. Heiman's brigade: Tenth Regiment Tennessee Volunteers, Lieutenant Colonel R. W. MacGavock; Fifty-third Regiment Tennessee Volunteers, Colonel Alfred [H.] Abernathy; eight companies of Forty-eighth Regiment Tennessee Volunteers, Colonel Voorhies; eight companies of Twenty-seventh Regiment Alabama Volunteers, Colonel Hughes; light battery, Captain Maney.