corrected one for the same period was mailed toyou May 19, 1865. July 1, 1864, I was on duty as chief quartermaster of the army of Major General W. T. Sherman and of the ARmy of the Cumberland, which at that time wer ein front of Kenesaw Mountain, Ga., facing the rebel army of General Johnston. The effective strength of our army in the field was a bout 100,000 men, with 28,300 horses, 32,600 mules, 5,180 wagons, and 860 amublances. The enemy occupied a strong position, including Kenesaw and adjoining heights, and covering Marietta, and had maintained it for nearly three weeks, occasionally cutting the railroad which connected us with Chattanooga, by means of small parties of guerrillas or cavalry who operated between Dalton and Resaca, and could hide in the mountains and forests of the Chattanooga Ridge. General Sherman had left garrisons at Tunnel Hill, Dalton, Resaca, and Kingston, and a division of cavalry at Adairsville, but the first attempts of the rebels at interrupting the road, which occurred in June, were successful. They would displace rails, wait until a train came along, which would be thrown from the track. Later accidents from the removal of rails was prevented to a great degree by patrols, which went out from the posts regularly to examine the track. The enemy burned a small bridge near Dalton, and by frequent dashes at the road prevented to a great degree the passage of trains for about twenty days. Our dependence during that time was mainly on Resaca. When the army abandoned the railroad at Kingston, May 24, and marched to Dallas, for fifteen days they were on half-rations of grain and three-quarter rations of subsistence, which had been loaded into the wagons at Kingston. During this time I had directed the chief depot quartermaster at Chattanooga, Captain E. L. Hartz, to accumulate at Resaca grain and subsistence. The latter place, around which numerous earth-works had been built by the enemy, was garrisoned pretty strongly to guard these supplies. Above ten days' grain and twenty days' subsistence for the army were collected there, and until the breaks in the road were repaired and the guerrillas hunted from the region about Dalton we lived on the supplies brought from Resaca. By the 30th of June, while we were still in front of Kenesaw Mountain, all the forage had been brought away from Resaca. Allatoona was named as the point where any future accumulation that was possible should be made, and by order of General Sherman earth-works were built to strengthen the position, which was naturally a strong one.

From the 11th to the 19th of June the enemy had been forced back step by step till our men reached the base of Kenesaw Mountain, but there our utmost efforts could not force them farther. Kenesaw consists of two elevations, one about 900, the other about 800 feet high. They are very steep, and on t he sides and summit the enemy had signal stations that could look down on us and report our every movement. Their batteries on the heights had a great advantage ove ours on the low grounds, and an assult made on their lines on the 27th of June was repulsed with a loss to us of 3,000 men. After this General Sherman directed that the wagon trains should be filled up as far as possible at Big Shanty, and all cars and stores not taken by the wagons be sent back to Allatoona, and while the Armies of the Cumberland and the Ohio still continued to press the enemy's lines closely, the Army of the Tennessee should march from our extreme left to the extreme right to Ruff's Mill, on Nickajack Creek, threatening a crossing of the Chattahoochee River and the railroad. It was only by extraordinary exertions