C 2] 
23 
Report B, of the Board of Engineers, exhibits the result of its ex- 
amination of tiie harbor of Presque Isle, on Lake Erie, and fur- 
nishes a project for the removal of the bar obstructing its entrance, 
illustrated by drawings and a detailed estimate of the expease of 
effecting it. 
The drawings above referred to are on file in this Department. 
The appropriations of the year 1822 for the severalfortifications, 
amounting to g370,000, and for the Military Academy, amounting 
to 813,979, have been expended upon the objects to which they were 
respectively applicable^ and the accounts for the same have been 
rendered and settled. 
All of the amounts drawn in the three first quarters of tlie year 
1823, will have been satisfactorily accounted for, when a small portion 
of the accounts, not yet rendered for settlement, but daily expected, 
shall have been received. There has been no defalcation in any of 
the agents under the Engineer Department; the delay in the rendition of 
the small portion of accounts not received, having been produced, with 
respect to those for Rigolets and Chef Menteur, by the failure of the 
Department to transmit the requisite funds in season, and, w ith res- 
pect to the others, by causes which have been satisfactorily ex- 
plained. 
The several fortifications under construction, and those which 
have been, since the last Annual Report, commenced, have progress- 
ed in as satisfactory a manner as circumstances would permit. The 
workmanship in every instance is of the most respectable character, 
and the materials all of tlwi best kind and most durable nature. 
Fort Delaware is so far completed that it will be ready to receive 
its guns and a garrison in the ensuing spring. An unusual degree of 
sickness prevailed in the Delaware tJie last fall, whereby theEngi- 
neers and men employed at the fort suffered veiy much, and had ibr 
a time to discontinue tiie works; otherwise this fort would have been 
completed within this year: however, its present state is such as, 
with no great exertions, it might be rendered immediately a formida- 
ble defence to tiie river Delaware. It will be completed in the course 
of the ensuing season with the remainder of the appropriation appli- 
cable to that purpose. 
Fort Washington is completed, with the exception of some objects 
of minor consideration, which the residue of the appropriation is 
adequate to effect. 
Fortress Monroe begins to present a formidable appearance; the 
exterior wall, ten feet thick at its base, is carried on an average all 
round the place to the height of twelve feet; and a wet ditch sur- 
rounds the whole work. A battery on the covert way is constructed 
capable of receiving forty-two pieces; and in the three fi-onts of the 
fortress on the sea side, embrasures are partly constructed for eighty- 
four guns; so that in case of necessity a battery of one hundred and 
twenty-six heavy guns might readily be mounted for the protection of 
Hampton Roads. 
