bation of our commander, we shall feel proud of the humble part which we were permitted to take in the great and glorious campaign which has just ended so successfully to our arms and our cause and with such disaster to the arms and cause of the enemies of our common country. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

O. A. CLARK,

Second Lieutenant, Tenth Wisconsin Battery.

Captain H. J. SMITH,

A. A. A. G., 2nd Brigadier, 3rd Cav. Div., Mil. Div. of the Miss.

Numbers 231. Report of Major General John M. Schofield, U. S. Army, commanding Department of North Carolina, Army of the Ohio (or Center), of operations January 1-March 24.

HDQRS. DEPT. OF NORTH CAROLINA, ARMY OF THE OHIO,
Goldsborough, N. C., April 3, 1865.

GENERAL: I have the honor to make the following report of the operations of the troops under my command since January 1, 1865, the date of my last report,* addressed to Major General George H. Thomas, commanding Department of the Cumberland, under whose command I was then serving: On the 2nd of January, 1865, I marched with the Twenty-third Army Corps from Columbia, Tenn., and arrived at Clifton, on the Tennessee River, on the 8th, under orders to embark my troops at that point and move to Eastport, Miss. But before the embarkation had commenced I received, January 14, an order from the lieutenant-general commanding, through the chief of staff of the Army, to move with the Twenty-third Army Corps to Annapolis, Md. Accordingly the movement was commenced on the following day. The troops moved with their Artillery and horses, but without wagons, by steam transports to Cincinnati, Ohio, and thence by rail to Washington, D. C., and Alexandria, Va., a second order from Washington having changed the destination from Annapolis. Although in midwinter, and weather unusually severe even for that season, the movement was effected without delay, accident, or suffering on the part of the troops. By the 31st of January the whole command had arrived at Washington and Alexandria. At Alexandria great and unavoidable delay was caused by the freezing of the Potomac, which rendered its navigation impossible much of the time for several weeks. Meanwhile I met the lieutenant general commanding at Fortress Monroe and went with him to the mouth of Cape Fear River to consult with Rear-Admiral Porter and Major-General Terry relative to future operations. On my return to Washington an order was issued from the War Department creating the Department of North Carolina, and assigning me to its command. My instructions from the lieutenant-general commanding, as well as those received from you, through Major-Genera Foster, made the ultimate object of my operations the occupation of Goldsborough, the opening of railroad communication between that point and the sea coast, the accumulation of supplies for your Army, and the junction of

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* See Vol. XLV, Part I, p. 339.

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