long and 80 feet wide, with the necessary buildings appertaining thereto. The erection of those buildings has been much delayed for the want of lumber and of railroad and wagon facilities for transportation of men and materials. We now have five saw-mills in operation, all located near the lines of railroad south and east of here, but frequently for the want of cars a large amount of lumber accumulates at the mills, and on a number of occasions has been seized and used by officers commanding posts at or near the location of the mills. These causes of delay are beyond my control, and I only mention them to show wy all that I could have wished has not been accomplished in the way of buildings. The materials and men for railroad construction have no preference of railroad transportation, and we have found it impossible to get Government teams for our work. In some cases our men have had to carry cross-ties 300 and 400 yards to the railroad for repairs and construction. Of course this kind of work would not do for any length of time, and early last spring I applied to Colonel A. Beckwith, chief commissary of subsistence, Division of the Mississippi, for oxen. He at once gave the necessary orders, and since that time we have been getting work-oxen from the Commissary Department out of their droves of beef cattle to do all our hauling. I cannot speak too highly of the assistance rendered and the hearty co-operation, of Colonel Beckwith and Lieutenant Colonel A. P. Porter, chief commissary of subsistence, Department of the Cumberland, in all our railroad operations.

Below please find a tabular statement of the cost of labor of the Construction Corps in this military division from December 15, 1863, to August 31, 1864:

Date. Amount- pay- Date. Amont- pay-

rolls rolls.

1863 1864.

December $6,155.71 May $202,693.45

June 162,849.18

1864 July 157,195.57

January 127,209.42 August 142,472.01

February 126,626.40

March 147,136.05 Total 1,222,767.41

April 150,429.62

The above statement includes the cost of all lumber and timber used.

I also send with this report tabular statements marked A, B, C, and D.

A is a statement of all stores issued from the military railroad supply store at Chattanooga up to June 30, 1864.*

B is a statement of all articles on hand in same store-house on the 1st day of October, 1864.*

C is a statement of tools and materials that were drawn from store-house and on hand and in use by the Construction Corps June 30, 1864.*

D is a similar statement to C, but made up to August 31, 1864.*

Never having been furnished with an account of the iron rails, chairs and spikes sent to us here, I am unable to include in my report a statement of the amount of these articles used and on hand in the military division. A great many of the bent rails, where the track has been torn up and the ties and burned, have been straightened

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*Omitted.

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