HILTON HEAD, May 6, 1865.

Brevet Major-General GROVER,

Commanding District of Savannah:

Your telegram about Planter is received. Your action in taking her and sending her to Augusta is approved, solely upon the condition that you can and will furnish General Saxton with a boat to be used as he may require during the absence of the Planter.

Very respectfully,

T. D. HODGES,

Captain Thirty-fifth, U. S. Colored Troops, and Actg. Asst. Adjt. General

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SAVANNAH,
Savannah, Ga., May 6, 1865.

ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL,

Headquarters Department of the South:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of an official letter dated May 3, 1865, from the major-general commanding, and reply as follows to the questions therein contained, viz: The number of white children of the proper age to attend schools in this city is not less than 2,000. The number actually attending now is about 600. The number will gradually increase, of course. The free schools for white children are supported, as will be seen, from the civil fund, which accrues from taxes, rents, fines, and confiscation of smuggled goods, &c., and which at present affords an income of about $6,500 per month. The number of colored children in Savannah will not, I think, reach over 1,800 for the education of which there are now two schools, viz, Mr. Magill's school, having on its rolls 500 children, and a school under the auspices of what is called the Savannah Educational Association, having on its rolls 600. With the exception of assigning a proper school building, fitting it up, &c., I have taken no official action in regard to these schools, for the reason that Mr. Magill has been sent here by General Saxton as superintendent of all the schools for colored children in the eastern part of Georgia. He has his own teachers. All, I am, informed, are paid by some benevolent assciation in the North. Mr. Magill has thus far had every facility afforded him which he desired. The school under the supervision of the Savannah Educational Association has colored teachers, and is superintended by colored men. Thus far Mr. magill has had nothing to do with this school and is not in favor of the system pursued, &c., of the employment of colored teachers. He does not think that a school can be successfully managed under such an organization. Another difficulty which stands in the way of establishing colored schools on a proper basis is that all the teachers will have to be grought from the North. I am informed that the climate her eis such as to make it necessary to close all schools at the end of June, less than two months from the present time. The schools remain c1st of October. Therefore, I do not think that the eduation of the colored children can, for the rest of the season, be put upon a better basis than it now, is under which the colored children seem to be considerably better provided for, in proportion to the numbers, than the white are now. Any assistance in the way of hiring competent teaches, when found, we can give, as we give to the free schools established in General Orders, Numbers 29. But if the supervision of such schools rests with General Saxton, as he evidently thinks it