Forts may be protected against assault and your own rifle pits from occupation by an enemy simply by a proper distribution of these new engines of war. They may be planted line within line and one row above another, and so arranged that volcanoes can be sprung at will under the feet of assaulting columns. And these improvements and discoveries enable the engineer at small cost, and short notice effectually to defend any roadstead, or block any river, harbour or pass against the land and naval forces of an enemy without in the least interfering with the free use of the same by friendly powers. To this admirable state of efficiency was the new and terrible science of war perfected, chiefly by the Confederate Navy, and mainly through the instrumentality of its faithful, and devoted officer Captain Matthew F. Maury, and his brave and daring young assistants, Minor, Davidson, Kennon, Dixon, Glassel, and many others, and those crews of the "Hundley," who moved by the lofty faith that with them died, volunteered for enterprise of extremest peril in the defense of Charleston Harbour, in which they all perished, in this desperate service, of whom the names of but the following are known: Horace L. Hundley, George E. Dixon, Robert Brookland, Jos. Patterson, Thomas W. Park, Chas. McHugh, Henry Beard, John Marshall, C. L. Sprague, C. F. Carlson, Arnold Beeker, Jos. A. Wicks, C. Simpkins, F. Collins, Ridgway, Miller, whose monument erected by the ladies of Charleston, stands upon the battery there in perpetual memory and honour. RICHARD L. MAURY, Army Northern Virginia.