The reason for my sending to Dr. Mosely was the fact that I knew him to be a humane man and a skilful surgeon, and I did not know the post surgeon, as I had been in Front Royal but a short time. In fact I supposed Dr. Mosely to be in command of that department. All of which is respectfully submitted: JOHN W. WILLIAMS, JAMES L. BATES, Captain Co. H, 12th Reg't Mass. Vols., A. A. G., Gen. Ricketts's Brigade. WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, SIR: Your report dated the 22d ultimo, concerning the wounded men of General Shields's division, transmitted to this department, has been submitted to the Secretary of War, who is of the opinion that neither yourself nor Dr. Cox are amenable to censure under the circumstances. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Brigadier General JAMES B. RICKETTS, L. THOMAS, U. S. Vols., Comd'g, &c., Front Royal, Va. Adjutant General. Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, upon the subject of great guns. FEBRUARY, 27, 1865.—Referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs and ordered to be printed. To the Honorable Committee on the Conduct of the War, United States Senate: 1. Since the battle of Solferino, when rifled cannon were first actively put in use, all the nations liable to a state of war have been straining every nerve to improve their ordnance, and hence their improvements in the means of defence, and the experiments conducted to produce large rifled guns were cotemporary with the experiments in iron-clad ships. Modern warfare, therefore, with large rifled guns and iron-clad ships, is in its infancy, although large smooth bores and wooden ships have an earlier date; their general use in service began with the present rebellion, and, at this date, the large gun of either class, not liable either to the accident of enlargement of the bore or bursting has not yet been made; while of rifles we have none over 30-pounders that have not proved utterly unsafe, except a few 60-pounder Parrott's, untried in battle, and some experimental 50-pounders which have been made, but never put in service. . 2. As field rifle guns were successfully used before the rebellion, it appears that no improvements have been made in large guns during the war, whilst every other branch of inventive genius has been successfully keeping pace with the march of the revolution in science and mechanics. 3. We can, and we should have guns to answer the purpose of their creation equally with agricultural instruments. 4. What farmer would continue to use a plough, if it were liable to burst and blow him and his team to atoms? Private enterprise overcomes these difficulties, why does not the government likewise? 5. At Fort Sumter, in the beginning of the rebellion, the only casualty was by the bursting of a gun. In the attack on Fort Fisher all the casualtics in the fleet resulted from the same cause. At the bursting of every gun more or less life is lost, beside the sacrifice of property, and owing to the reticence of the departments but a small percentage of the numbers that burst, and the losses sustained by the government, are published. Those we hear of in the newspapers generally come from some literary, but unscientific reporter. 6. Eighteen large rifles were. disabled on Admiral Porter's fleet at Fort Fisher, yet the Secretary reported to Congress but five; and recently a board |