the largest interests at stake, including Mr. Garrett, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, I am prepared to report to the general commanding that, in my opinion, the pacification throughout the department is complete, and that the guards may now with safety be withdrawn from the bridges and depots along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, but that it will still be necessary to keep guards at the water-stations and other places where troop trains stop, to preserve order and prevent depredations. To enable me to do this effectually, and also to aid the civil authorities in districts where the courts are not in operation, I consider that one regiment of infantry and a squadron or two of cavalry will be sufficient in each district, with a small reserve in the central district, Cumberland. This will apply to all the districts except the Kanawha Valley, where I have, and propose to keep for the present, a regiment of infantry and a regiment of cavalry. I have already notified you that I have given orders to muster out of service the First New York Cavalry, which is one of the two cavalry regiments now in the Kanawha Valley. I have sent there the Second West Virginia Veteran Infantry to take its place, and the muster out will commence as soon as that regiment relieves them. I have also notified you that I propose to muster out the Eighth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, now in the Clarksburg District, but I will not be able to do so until the consolidation of the Eighteenth and Twenty-second Regiments Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry is completed, when I propose to detach one or two squadrons from this regiment to relieve the Eighth One. The consolidation of these two regiments is occupying more time than I anticipated, owing to the scattered position of the troops of the Twenty-second Pennsylvania and the state of the rolls in both regiments, which require close examination to enable the mustering officer to determine what men are entitled to be mustered out under the authority just received to allow the men of these regiments to go out who actually enlisted, did duty, and received pay prior to the 1st of October, although they may not have been mustered in until that date. I also have it in contemplation to muster out the Twenty-third Ohio Veteran Infantry, now stationed at Martinsburg. The volunteer forces in this department will then be reduced to five regiments of infantry and two of cavalry, and will be disposed of as follows, viz:

Harper's Ferry District: Fifth New York Heavy Artillery, acting as infantry, to furnish a standing garrison of 500 men at Harper's Ferry, where we have stored a large quantity of public property, particularly ordnance stores and ammunition. Should any emergency require cavalry in that district the Sixth United States, at Frederick, might be called upon.

Cumberland District: First West Virginia Veteran Infantry, two squadrons Third Provisional Pennsylvania Cavalry [Eighteenth and Twenty-second consolidated]. Should any emergency call for additional forces I can use the Fifth U. S. Cavalry, stationed here for the purpose of recruiting.

Clarksburg District: Seventy-fourth Pennsylvania Infantry and two or three squadrons, as the exigencies of the times may require, of the Third Provisional Pennsylvania Cavalry.

In the Wheeling District, Thirty-sixth Ohio Veteran Infantry, and, if necessary, the remaining squadron of the Third Provisional Pennsylvania Cavalry. The force in this district might be much reduced, except that it has in its limits the military prison and a considerable amount of public property stored at Wheeling.

In the Kanawha District there will be the Second West Virginia Veteran Infantry and the Seventh West Virginia Veteran Cavalry.