lin, superintendent carpenters; Frank McGarvin, superintendent saw-mills. Number of men in the division,

-------

.

Fifth division: W. R. Kingsley, division engineer; A. C. Burrel, trackmen. Number of men in the division,

-------

.

Sixth division: Charles W. Stewart, assistant engineer; P. J. Weltz,

superintendent bridge builders; G. W. Briggs, superintendent trackmen. Number of men in the division,

------

.

Unattached; C. Latimer, assistant engineer. Number of men unattached,

-------

. Total number of men on the rolls of the construction corps October 31, 1864,

-------

.

In conclusion it may not be considered inappropriate for me to say that the organization made by you in January last, in view of the immense amount of railroad work to be done over such an extensive field, has, when put to the test, been found to work admirably, and in no essential feature has there been any change made or deemed necessary.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. W. WRIGHT,

Chief Engr. Government Railroads, Div. of the Mississippi.

C.

NASHVILLE, TENN., October 25, 1864.

Brigadier General D. C. McCALLUM,

General Manager U. S. Military Railroads,

Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the following report of operations in which I have been engaged during the year ending with June 30, 1864;

First. As chief engineer of military railroads of Virginia:

On the 1st day of July 1863, at Alexandria, I received your order to proceed to the Western Maryland Railroad and increase its capacity for moving supplies to the Army of the Potomac, then in front of Gettysburg. The road was one of the most difficult to be found in the country for the purpose to which it had been so suddenly applied. Between Relay and Westminster (the main army depot), a distance of thirty-six miles, there was not a siding long enough to pass a train, no telegraph line, water stations of sufficient capacity to supply only two or three engines daily and the wood on the line was consumed the second day. Engines, cars, wood, and other necessary material were brought from Alexandria, water was bailed into the engines with buckets, to which service forty to fifty men were specially detailed, and by keeping the trains constantly moving over the road in convoys of five or six the necessary supplies were delivered.

The movement of the army from Gettysburg to the Potomac caused the Western Maryland line to be abandoned on the 7th of July. On the 9th I was ordered by Brigadier-General Haupt to take charge of the railroad from Hanover Junction, on Northern Central Railrad, to Gettysburg a distance of thirty miles for the purpose of bringing away from the latter the wounded of the battle. This service continued until July 17, when it was transferred to W. W. Wright, and I returned to Alexandria to resume my more directaa duties.

From the 1st to the 18th of July the Construction Corps had been employed in rebuilding the bridges of the Northern Central Railroad between Hanover Junction and Harrisburg, which had been destroyed by the rebel army in June.

61 R R-SERIES III, VOL IV