Report of forage and means of transportation received, taken up, transferred, expended, lost, destroyed, and amount on hand June 30, 1864.

Corn. Oats. Hay. Wagons.

Received Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. Numbers

by 1,120 ...... 12,860

purchase.. .......

Received 21,404 41,650 16,625 14

from

officers..

Taken up.. ....... ........ 25 ......

Total 22,524 41,650 29,510 4

received..

Transferre ........ 3,850 4,175 8

d

Expended.. 22,524 37,656 25,335 .......

Lost and ....... ......... ......... ........

destroyed.

.

Total 22,524 41,506 29,510 8

expended,

lost, &c..

On hand ...... 144 ........ 6

June 30,

1864.

Ambulances. Harness. Horses. Mules.

Received Numbers Numbers Numbers Numbers

by ......

purchase.. ........ ......... .......

Received 3 59 40 27

from

officers..

Taken up.. ....... ........ 6 4

Total 3 59 46 31

received..

Transferre 1 27 22 3

d

Expended.. ......... ........ ........ ........

Lost and ......... ........ 7 4

destroyed.

.

Total 1 27 29 7

expended,

lost, &c..

On hand 2 32 17 24

June 30,

1864.

The estimated number of dispatches per month sent and received over the lines under my direction, 17,300, and for the three months embraced in this report, 103,800.

The number cannot be ascertained to a positive certainty, for the reason that at times of imminent danger operators have been instructed to destroy their dispatchs to prevent the possibility of their falling into the hands of the enemy, and thereby valuable information be given the enemy. But the number herein stated is certainly within the actual number.

In other portions of this report mention is made of the rough, mountainous nature of the country through which the greater part of the lines which are under my charge run. No correct idea of the disadvantages under which I have labored can be obtained except by actual observation. My only means of transportation is by army wagons or-for the lighter articles, office supplies, &c- ambulances. Instead of railroads I have the dirt road, which at times is almost impassible on account of mud, and, which is always so rough and mountainous as to make this mode of conveyance slow and laborious. Repairers have to patrol the line on horseback, and in times of storms and high water, just when the line is most liable to be interrupted, they are frequently unable to cross the mountain streams, swollen and converted by the rains of one night into foaming impassable rivers. Office supplies and battery material are conveyed from the supply depot in Danville to the different offices in ambulances; and even then with the greatest care acids are frequently lost, when it has almost reached its destination, by a sudden jolt or jar breaking the carboy.

One glaring abuse of the privileges of the military telegraph to which we are at all times more or less subject, and which ought to receive official condemnation, is the practice too common with officers of the Army of conducting their entire correspondence by telegraph when the same might be much more satisfactory transmitted through the regular mails. This practice is, as, I conceive, based upon a misapprehension of the uses and purposes of the military telegraph. The beauty and utility of the telegraph as a means of communication is its rapidity; but as any one can see there must be a limit to the capacity of any telegraph line, and to have it lumbered up with long