master of the large bodies of hired laborers, has performed and amount of duty I should hardly have expected from one individual. I could wish that the law under which he serves the Engineer Department, might be so modified in his case as to enable him to receive some adequate compensation for the extra duties he has voluntarily assumed. I should have mentioned, in connection with my statement of the amount actually expended, that the Treasury Department has advanced over $20,000 on account of the defenses of Washington, which should be take immediate measures to assess the land and other damages arising from these works and from the occupation of troops. In most cases the owners are ill able to bear temporarily the losses to which they have been subjected..

In conclusion, I would add that to the great importance attached to these works by the commanding general (now Commander-in-Chief), to his valuable suggestions and prompt and cordial co-operation, the present state of efficiency of the defenses of Washington is in no small degree due..

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,.

J. G. BARNARD,.

Major of Eng., Brigadier General, and Chief Eng. Army of Potomac. .

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. CORPS OF OBSERVATION,.

Numbers 33.
Poolesville, December 10, 1861.

In compliance with Special Orders, Numbers 322, of December 6, 1861, headquarters of the Army, received this day, the undersigned assumes military supervision of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal..

All officers commanding lines of pickets between Great Falls and the Monocacy River are commanded, and all officers commanding pickets and lines of pickets along other portions of the canal are requested, to give all aid and assistance in their power, consistent with the good of the service, to the Canal Company authorities in the preservation and improvement of the canal. .

CHAS. P. STONE,

Brigadier-General, Commanding..

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. WESTERN VIRGINIA,

Numbers 16.
Wheeling, Va., December 11, 1861.

I. The headquarters of the Department of Western Virginia will until further orders be Wheeling, Va. .

* * * * *

By command of Brigadier-General Rosecrans:.

GEO. L. HARTSUFF,.

Assistant Adjutant-General..

HEADQUARTERS,.

Baltimore, December 12, 1861.

Honorable S. P. CHASE, Secretary of Treasury:.

SIR: In a letter to you of the 5th instant I mentioned, in connection with a recommendation of two persons in Accomac and Northampton.