Head, S. C., to whom they had been sent for this army. Soon after arriving in Savannah corps hospitals were established for the reception of such sick or disabled men as were then in the army as well as for receiving all such cases as would be unable to undergo the hardships of a severe campaign when the time came for taking the field. The army was composed of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Twentieth Corps and the Third Cavalry Division, making an aggregate of about 65,000 men. The several corps left Savannah at various dates from the 15th to the 22nd of January. Before marching they were disencumbered of all men not supposed to be able to endure active duty in the field, these sick or disabled men being placed in their respective corps hospitals. A sufficient number of medical officers and hospital attendants had been detached and ordered to the duty of taking care of all left in the hospitals. Before entering Savannah about 200 wounded men, eighty of whom had been carried in ambulances from the vicinity of Macon, had been sent on a hospital steamer to the hospitals at Hilton Head. The Right Wing, under command of General Howard, began the march from Pocotaligo, S. C., on the 1st day of February. These troops had been encamped for two weeks in ow marshes, and it was again found necessary to disencumber the two corps-Fifteenth and Seventeenth-forming this wing of the army of about 200 sick, who were sent to hospitals in Beaufort, S. C. At about the same date the two corps-Fourteenth and Twentieth-forming the Left Wing, under General Slocum, began the march from two points about thirty miles apart on the north side of the Savannah River. To facilitate the progress of the army the four corps marched by as many different roads. By far the most serious obstacle encountered during the first ten days was the bad condition of the roads. The face of the country was intersected with innumerable streams, spreading over a wide extent of bottom, through which the streams flowed in numerous channels, with intervening marshes impracticable for roads except by continuous corduroy and bridgining. To do this work and to extricate wagons and artillery from mire great numbers of the men were wading through water and mud from morning until night. The roads through this part of the State would have been through fens and marshes, only to be crossed on causeways even in dry weather and without opposition, but several days' heavy rain so swelled the streams as to cover the whole face of the country with water, so that the marching columns were almost constantly in water, often knee deep.

On the 2nd of February the enemy disputed the crossing of the Salkehatchie River at Rivers' Bridge. After a sharp skirmish a crossing was effected, with a loss of 16 killed and 85 wounded. The wounded from this affair were sent back to Beaufort. This loss occurred in General Mower's division of the Seventeenth Corps. After this there was no other considerable skirmish until arrival of the Right Wing at Congaree Creek, near Columbia. The crossing was opposed by cavalry under wade Hampton, but the crossing was soon effected, with a loss of 5 killed and 14 wounded. Two days afterward the army entered Columbia. Up to this period the Left Wing had encountered no opposition. The cavalry, under General Kilpatrick, had a severe skirmish at Aiken, a point on the railroad about twenty miles east of Augusta, but I have not received a report of the casualties. After a rest of two days in Columbia the army resumed its march, taking roads lrth, and in two days reached Winnsborough. The following day a march of near twenty miles was made to the crossing of the Catawba River at Rocky Mount. This was by the Left Wing; the Right Wing