This report and a letter of General Scott on the subject, which was transmitted to the Senate on the 27th of March last, furnish all the information the Department is in possession of in relation to the requirements of the above resolution.

Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

J.R.  POINSETT.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,

Washington, June 26, 1840.

The SECRETARY OF WAR.

SIR:  I have the honor to report that in obedience to your instructions letters have been addressed to the various officers who it was supposed might be able to procure the information required by the resolution of the Senate of the 12th of March, to wit:  “Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to communicate to the Senate, if in his judgment compatible with the public interest, any information which maybe in possession of the Government, or which can be conveniently obtained, of the military and naval preparations of the British authorities on the northern frontier of the United States from Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean, distinguishing the permanent from the temporary and field works, and particularly by noting those which are within the claimed limits of the United States.”  In answer to the letter addressed to him on the subject, and with regard to the Senate’s resolution as far as relates to “military preparations of the British authorities on the northern frontier of the United States,” General Scott communicates the following facts:  That he has paid but little attention to the forts and barracks erected by the British authorities near the borders of Maine above Frederickton, in New Brunswick, or in Upper Canada above Cornwall, being of the fixed opinion that all such structures would be of little or no military value to either of the parties in the event of a new war between the United States and Great Britain; that he was last summer at the foot of Lake Superior, and neither saw nor heard of any British fort or barracks on the St. Marys River; that between Lakes Huron and Brie the British have three sets of barracks—­one at Windsor, opposite to Detroit; one at Sandwich, a little lower down; and the third at Malden, 18 miles below the first—­all built of sawed logs, strengthened by blockhouses, loopholes, etc.; that Malden has long been a military post, with slight defenses; these have been recently strengthened.  The works at Sandwich and Windsor have also, he thinks, been erected within the last six or eight months.  That near the mouth of the Niagara the British have two small forts—­George and Mississauga; both existed during the last war; the latter may be termed a permanent work.  Slight barracks have been erected within the last two years on the same side near the Falls and at Chippewa, with breastworks at the latter place, but nothing, he believes, above the work first named on the Niagara which can be termed a fort.