HDQRS. DEPT. SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, AND FLORIDA,
Charleston, S. C., March 31, 1863.

Brigadier General R. S. RIPLEY,

Commanding First Military District, Charleston:

GENERAL: I am instructed to inquire whether all the forts and batteries under command are properly provided with lanterns and all the requisite appliances for the most effective night service. If this should not prove to be so, it is the wish of the commanding general that the deficiencies should be supplied and all the batteries placed at once on the most efficient footing possible.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

THOMAS JORDAN,

Chief of Staff.

SAVANNAH, GA., March 31, 1863.

Colonel J. GORGAS,

Chief of Ordnance, Richmond, Va.:

SIR: I report for the information of the War Department that I have inspected the artillery and ordnance stores at this place. I transmit herewith-

1st. A tracing of Savannah and its environs, on which is marked in red [heavy black] the positions of the different works.

2nd. A list of the number and caliber of guns in each work.

3rd. The diagrams [Inclosure Numbers 3 and Numbers 4] of the form, &c., of some of these works. The works are well constructed and are all now in a condition for service, but several are not finished, and more labor is required for their preservation. The armament is in very fair order and well supplied with ammunition, but the caliber of most of the guns is small, and the most urgent want for the proper defense of this place is guns of greater weight of metal. To oppose the passage of the enemy's vessels up the river there are the obstructions at the head of Elba Island, 1 1/4 miles below Fort Jackson. The iron-clad steam battery State of Georgia, four guns, is stationed at the head of Elba Island. From the obstructions at this point to Fort Jackson the river is commanded by Fort Jackson (eight guns), Battery Lee (eight guns and three 10-inch mortars), Battery Cheves (seven guns), Battery Lawton (six guns); total, twenty-nine guns and three mortars-thirty-tow pieces. After passing these works the guns bearing on the river are Fort Boggs (tenn guns, two 10-inch mortars), Hutchinson Island Battery (three guns), and Bay Battery, on edge of one mortar. Total armament of batteries on the river, 44 guns and four mortars-forty-eight pieces.

To prevent landings on the water-courses to the southward and eastward of the city there are the battery at Genesis Point, Fort McAllister, south side of Ogeechee River (seven guns and one mortar), Rosedew Battery (two guns), Beaulieu Battery (nine guns), line of Isle of Hope, siege train (seven guns), Thunderbolt Battery (fourteen guns), Greenwich Battery (three guns), Fort Bartow, at Carston's Bluff, within range of Fort Jackson (seven guns, two mortars, and a park of twelve field pieces); total, forty-nine guns, three 10-inch mortars, and twelve field guns-sixty-four pieces.

On the lines extending from the swamp west of the city around the approaches from the south and east to Fort Boggs on the river the total number of guns now in position is forty-one, as per inclosed list. The