“Recommendation is made that all fortifications and property be transferred to the Engineer Department. That for the present batteries be considered non-existent so that future work may be chargeable as original construction. Much ordnance can be saved if given prompt attention. Unless otherwise instructed, I will take charge of these works at once and save all possible. New projects for jetties and forts cannot be submitted for several weeks until definite detailed information is had. Further recommendations will then be submitted as soon as possible. Galveston is still a deep water port, and such a storm is not likely to reoccur for years. “RICHE, Engineer.” Notwithstanding the fact that the number of boats carrying passengers between Texas City and Galveston has been largely increased, it was impossible on Thursday, the 13th, to leave the city after the early morning hours, and hundreds of men, women and children, all anxious to depart, suffered great inconvenience and hardship, and were, after all, compelled to sleep upon the beach at Texas City, waiting for the morning. There is but one steamboat plying across Galveston Bay, which is able to carry passengers in any number, and even this boat is able to make the trip only with extreme caution, on account of the shallowness of the bay. Yesterday morning somebody lacked something of being cautious in the extreme, and the “Lawrence,” after jamming her nose into the mud, remained aground all day. Her passengers were taken off in small boats. This compelled all those who were unable to come on the first trip of the “Lawrence” to trust themselves to sailboats, and by noon a dozen of them, heavily loaded, started from Galveston to Texas City, where the fleet was scattered over Galveston Bay by a distance of anywhere between one mile and three miles. The wind died away utterly. URGED TO HURRY A TRAIN. The boats could neither go on to Texas City nor return to Galveston. None of them had more than a meagre supply of water and no food, as the trip ordinarily does not require above an hour. Great suffering resulted. All afternoon they were becalmed, and, a slight breeze arising in the evening, at 9 o’clock at night the sailing craft which had left Galveston at noon began to dump their passengers upon the beach at Texas City. This place is now among the things that once were. There are no houses, no tents, no accommodations of any kind save a few passenger coaches standing upon the railroad track. These were speedily filled, and the rest of the women and children, all hungry and the latter crying for food, were compelled to remain on the beach.