from abroad. It released at once a large portion of our naval force, and led to immediate measures for the reduction of our squadrons, and the withdrawal of all vessels which could be dispensed with from the blockade. Such of them as were purchased and no longer required by the government, have from time to time been sold to meet the demands of reviving commerce, which has rapidly expanded as the country became quieted and industry was resumed at the south. Trade and peaceful employment have led to the reopening of the avenues of commercial and social intercourse, and the steamers bought from the merchant service for war purposes have been to a great extent returned to their former pursuits.

NORTH ATLANTIC SQUADRON-CAPTURE OF WILMINGTON AND ITS DEFENCES.

As early as 1862 the necessity of closing the port of Wilmington became a primary object with this department, and was never relinquished; but without military aid and co-operation it could not be effected or even wisely attempted. In September, 1864, the department had such assurances of military assistance as to feel warranted in entering upon the necessary preparations for assembling an adequate naval force to undertake and perform its part in accomplishing the work. In order that there should be no failure, the department concentrated a sufficient force to insure success. To place that force under thecommand of the first officer in the navy was a duty. Vice-Admiral Farragut was therefore selected to conduct the enterprise, but impaired health, the result of exposure and unremitted exertions during two years of active labor and unceasing efforts in the Gulf, rendered it imprudent for that distinguished and energetic officer to enter upon this service. He had, moreover, important work yet to be finished on the Gulf coast, where he was then operating, and was therefore on his own request excnsed from this new command. Rear-Admiral Porter, who had shown great ability as the commander of the Mississippi squadron, and had identified himself with many of its most important achievements, was transferred to the command of the North Atlantic squadron, which embraced within its limits Cape Fear river and the port of Wilmington.

A flect of naval vessels, surpassing in numbers and equipments any which had assembled during the war, was collected with despatch at Hampton Roads. Various causes intervened to delay the movement, and it was not until the early part of December that the expedition departed for Beaufort, N. C., the place of rendezvous. Some further necessary preparations were there made, which, together with unfavorable weather and other incidents, delayed the attack until the 24th of December. On that day Rear-Admiral Porter, with a bombarding force of thirty-seven vessels, five of which were iron-clads, and a reserved force of nineteen vessels, attacked the forts at the mouth of Cape Fear river, and silenced them in one hour and a quarter; but there being no troops to make an assault or attempt to possess them, nothing beyond the injury inflicted on the works and the garrison was accomplished by the bombardment. A renewed attack was made the succeeding day, but with scarcely better results. The fleet shelled the forts during the day and silenced them, but no assault was

made, or attempted, by the troops which had been disembarked for that purpose.

Major General Butler, who commanded the co-operating force, after a reconnoissance, came to the conclusion that the place could not be carried by an assault. He therefore ordered a re-embarkation, and informing Real-Admiral Porter of his intention, returned with his command to Hampton Roads. Immediate information of the failure of the expedition was forwarded to the department by Rear-Admiral Porter, who remained in the vicinity with his entire fleet, awaiting the needful military aid. Aware of the necessity of reducing these works, and of the great importance which the department attached to closing the port of Wilmington, and confident that with adequate military co-operation the fort could be carried, he asked for such co-operation, and earnestly requested that the enterprise should not be abandoned. In this the department and the President fully concurred. On the suggestion of the President, Lieutenant General Grant was advised of the confidence felt by Rear-Admiral Porter that he could obtain complete success, provided he should be sufficiently sustained. Such military aid was therefore invited as would insure the fall of Fort Fisher. A second military force was promptly detailed, composed of about eight thousand five hundred men, under the command of Major General A. H Terry, and sent forward. This officer arrived off Fort Fisher on the 13th of January. Offensive operations were at once resumed by the naval force and the troops were landed and intrenched themselves, while portion of the fleet bombarded the works. These operations were continued throughout the 14th with an increased number of vessels. The 15th was the day decided upon for an assault. During the forenoon of that day forty-four vessels poured an incessant fire into the rebel forts. There was, besides, a force of fourteen vessels in reserve. At 3 p. m. the signal for the assault was made. Desperate fighting ensued, traverse after traverse was taken, and by 10 p. m. the works were all carried, and the flag of the Union floated over them. Fourteen hundred sailors and marines were landed and participated in the direct assault.

Seventy-five guns, many of them superb rifle pieces, and nineteen hundred prisoners were the immediate fruits and trophies of the victory; but the chief value and ultimate benefit of this grand achievement consisted in closing the main gate through which the insurgents had received supplies from abroad and sent their own products to foreign markets in exchange.

Light-draught steamers were immediately pushed over the bar and into the river, the channel of which was speedily buoyed, and the removal of torpedoes forthwith commenced. The rebels witnessing the fall of Fort Fisher, at once evacuated and blew up Fort Caswell, destroyed Bald Head Fort and Fort Shaw, and abandoned Fort Campbell. Within twenty-four hours after the fall of Fort Fisher. the main defence of Cape Fear river, the entire chain of formidable works in the vicinity shared its fate, placing in our possession one hundred and sixty-eight guns of heavy calibre.

The heavier naval vessels being no longer needed in that quarter, were despatched in different directions-some to James river and northern ports, others

to the Gulf or the South Atlantic squadron. An ample force was retained, however, to support the small but brave army which had carried the traverses of Fort Fisher, and enable it, when re-enforcements should arrive, to continue the movement on Wilmington.

Great caution was necessary in removing the torpedoes, always formidable in harbors and internal waters, and which have been more destructive to our naval vessels than all other means combined.

About the middle of February offensive operations were resumed in the direction of Wilmington, the vessels and the troops moving up the river in concert. Fort Anderson, an important work, was evacuated during the night of the 18th of February, General Schofield advancing upon this fort with eight. thousand men, while the gunboats attacked it by water.

On the 21st the rebels were driven from Fort Strong, which left the way to Wilmington unobstructed, and on the 22d of February that city was evacuated. Two hundred and twelve guns were taken in the works from the entrance of Old river, including those near the city, and thus this great and brilliant achievement was completed.

SOUTH ATLANTIC SQUADRON-FALL OF CHARLESTON.

In November, 1864, the department officially advised Rear-Admiral Dahlgren that Major General Sherman had commenced his march from Atlanta to the seaboard, and that he might be expected to reach the Atlantic coast, in the vicinity of Savannah, about the middle of December. Rear-Admiral Dahlgren was instructed to be prepared to co-operate with General Sherman, and furnish him any needed naval assistance which it might be in his power to render. Before these instructions reached him, Rear-Admiral Dahlgren, who was thus not unprepared to hear of the movement of the army from Atlauta to the coast, had conferred with Major General Foster, then commanding the department of the south, and coucerted with him plans to assist, so far as their joint forces would allow, in establishing communication with the advancing general. A combined expedition was at once organized for cutting the railroad communication between Charleston and Savannah, and otherwise engaging the attention of the insurgents in that quarter. Force was displayed at the most important points along the Carolina coast, and every available means adopted to aid in the success of the grand and novel military movement which was in progress through the heart of a hostile country.

General Sherman reached the vicinity of Savannah on the 12th of December, and communication between him and Rear-Admiral Dahlgren was immediately established. The latter made the best possible disposition of the vessels then under his command, to assist the army in obtaining possession of Savannah. By the 18th of December the investment of that city, by the navy on one side and the army on the other, was accomplished. The garrison, however, succeeded in escaping across the river and effecting a retreat towards Charleston, leaving General Sherman to occupy Savannah on the 21st of that month.

Early in January Rear-Admiral Dahlgren was engaged in assisting in the

transfer of the right wing of the army to Beaufort, S. C., and in the course of General Sherman's march northward that officer and his army were aided by all needful naval demonstrations.

On the 12th and 13th of February a joint movement was made along the approaches from Bull's Bay to, Mount Pleasant, with a view of embarrassing the military commandant at Charleston, and blinding him as to the actual military design. No real or serious attack on Charleston was meditated. Only a diversion was contemplated at that moment. Other less extensive movements than that at Bull's Bay were made about that period, full details of which will be found in the despatches forming a part of the appendix to this report. They were intended simply to attract the attention of the rebels and aid General Sherman in accomplishing his great purpose of moving towards Richmond. Charleston was in the mean time vigilantly watched to detect the first indications of its abandonment by the rebels, which it was known must take place at an early day. The troops stationed thereabout were advanced, and' the iron-clads. were moved nearer to the rebel works. During the night of the 17th of February the batteries were ceaselessly employed, and the vessels in the harbor gave them watchful attention. The morning of the 18th revealed the fact that Charleston was evacuated. Thus, without a final struggle, the original seat of the rebellion, the most invulnerable and best protected city on the coast, whose defences had cost immense treasure and labor, was abandoned, and the emblem of unity and freedom was again reinstated upon the walls of Sumter.

The evacuation of Charleston was followed by that of Georgetown on the 23d of February, and on the 26th of that month the place itself was occupied by Rear-Admiral Dahlgren.

WEST GULF SQUADRON-SURRENDER OF MOBILE AND THE REBEL fleet.

When Vice-Adiniral Farragut left the West Gulf squadron in the later autumn of 1864, the command devolved on Commodore James S. Palmer, senior officer on the station. This officer continued operations until the arrival of Admiral Farragut's successor, Acting Rear-Admiral Thatcher, who bears testimony to his subsequent efficiency and untiring services throughout the attack on the defences of Mobile, and acknowledges also his indebtedness to Commodore Palmer for the admirable manner in which the vessels had been prepared for arduous service under that officer's supervision. The resumption of offensive operations against the city of Mobile, under the direction of Major General Canby, was not determined upon until early in January, when Acting Rear-Admiral Thatcher, then recently appointed to the command of the West Gulf squadron, was ordered to proceed immediately to New Orleans, in order to co-operate with the military commander.

The force placed under Acting Rear-Admiral Thatcher was increased by lightdraught iron-clads detached from the Mississippi squadron for service in Mobile bay. A joint movement by land and water was arranged and carried into execution. Indications that the rebels were about to evacuate the city led to a naval reconnoissance in force to ascertain the facts, on the 11th of March, with five monitors, in as close proximity as the shallow water and obstructions

Thatcher, was also consummated, and thereafter this force was known as the Gulf squadron. Acting Rear-Admiral Thatcher remained in command, and Acting Rear-Admiral Stribling returned to Boston in July.

Besides the vessels composing the several squadrons, others are in commission in various capacities. The James Adger is stationed at Aspinwall; the Michigan is assigned to the northern lakes; the Sabine is employed as an apprentice ship; the De Soto is in the West Indies; the Massachusetts and South Carolina are still continued as supply-ships for the squadrons on the coast; the Constitution, Macedonian, and several others are connected with the Naval Academy; and twenty vessels are used at the navy yards as receiving-ships and tenders; so that there are actually in commission at this time, at home and abroad, one hundred and seventeen vessels of all descriptions, which number, should the exigencies of the service permit, will be still further reduced.

In January, while Rear-Admiral Porter was engaged before Wilmington, affairs on James river assumed such an attitude, involving the welfare and security of the army by a demonstration on the part of the rebels with their armored rams from Richmond, that it was deemed important to send thither immediately an officer of ability and experience. Vice-Admiral Farragut, then in Washington, was selected for this special duty, and on the 24th of that month proceeded to James river for that purpose. The threatening demonstration below Richmond was not long maintained, and the occasion having passed, Vice-Admiral Farragut was relieved from this special service on the 2d of February.

A special squadron of vessels, consisting of the Vanderbilt, Tuscarora, Powhatan, and the turreted iron-clad Monadnock, left Hampton roads on the 2d of November, under the command of Commodore John Rodgers, destined to re-enforce the squadron in the Pacific.

In withdrawing a large naval force from active service, in disposing of the vessels, in discharging or detailing to other duties their officers and crews, in making provision for a large surplus of ordnance ammunition and stores, great labor has of course devolved upon the department and its bureaus. Some idea may be formed of the extent of that labor, from the fact that there were in the several blockading squadrons in January last, exclusive of other duty, four hundred and seventy-one vessels and two thousand four hundred and fifty-five guns. There are now but twenty-nine vessels remaining on the coast, carrying two hundred and ten guns, exclusive of howitzers. Disposition has been made of all the others. Some of the vessels are laid up in ordinary, some with their crews are on foreign service, but many have been sold, and, with most of the men that were actively engaged in hostile operations, are now employed in peaceful occupation.

As soon as our domestic troubles were overcome, the duty of attending to our interests abroad prompted the re-establishing of the foreign squadrons which had been suspended. The European, the Brazil, and the East India squadrons have been organized anew upon as economical a scale as is consistent with their efficiency, the interests of commerce, and a proper regard for our position as a

nation.

These squadrons, with another which is soon to be put in operation in the