moreover, that there were at Port Royal abundant supplies of bread and provisions, as well as of clothing, designed for our use.  We still had in our wagons and in camp abundance of meat, but we needed bread, sugar, and coffee, and it was all-important that a route of supply should at once be opened, for which purpose the assistance of the navy were indispensable.  We accordingly steamed down the Ogeechee River to Ossabaw Sound, in hopes to meet Admiral Dahlgren, but he was not there, and we continued on by the inland channel to Warsaw Sound, where we found the Harvest Moon, and Admiral Dahlgren.  I was not personally acquainted with him at the time, but he was so extremely kind and courteous that I was at once attracted to him.  There was nothing in his power, he said, which he would not do to assist us, to make our campaign absolutely successful.  He undertook at once to find vessels of light draught to carry our supplies from Port Royal to Cheeves’s Mill, or to Grog’s Bridge above, whence they could be hauled by wagons to our several camps; he offered to return with me to Fort McAllister, to superintend the removal of the torpedoes, and to relieve me of all the details of this most difficult work.  General Foster then concluded to go on to Port Royal, to send back to us six hundred thousand rations, and all the rifled guns of heavy calibre, and ammunition on hand, with which I thought we could reach the city of Savannah, from the positions already secured.  Admiral Dahlgren then returned with me in the Harvest Moon to Fort McAllister.  This consumed all of the 14th of December; and by the 15th I had again reached Cheeves’s Mill, where my horse awaited me, and rode on to General Howard’s headquarters at Anderson’s plantation, on the plank-road, about eight miles back of Savannah.  I reached this place about noon, and immediately sent orders to my own head-quarters, on the Louisville road, to have them brought over to the plank-road, as a place more central and convenient; gave written notice to Generals Slocum and Howard of all the steps taken, and ordered them to get ready to receive the siege-guns, to put them in position to bombard Savannah, and to prepare for the general assault.  The country back of Savannah is very low, and intersected with innumerable saltwater creeks, swamps, and rice-fields.  Fortunately the weather was good and the roads were passable, but, should the winter rains set in, I knew that we would be much embarrassed.  Therefore, heavy details of men were at once put to work to prepare a wharf and depot at Grog’s Bridge, and the roads leading thereto were corduroyed in advance.  The Ogeechee Canal was also cleared out for use; and boats, such as were common on the river plantations, were collected, in which to float stores from our proposed base on the Ogeechee to the points most convenient to the several camps.