Today in History:

699 Series I Volume IX- Serial 9 - Roanoke

Page 699 Chapter XXI. CORRESPONDENCE,ETC.-UNION.

[Indorsement.]

OFFICE OF COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF SUBSISTENCE, Richmond, March 6, 1862.

Respectfully returned to the Adjutant and Inspector General.

The circular within referred to was modified by substituting "officers commanding separate commands" for the words "general commanding," the object being to check,as far as practicable, unnecessary and extravagant purchases, and to prevent certificates form being given for provisions furnished to parties who were otherwise provided for or might have been,and who are not authorized to by stores or create claims against the Department. The regulations of the C. S. Army fix the responsibility upon the commanding officer of a department, requiring him to enforce a rigid economy in the public expenses, and to promptly correct all irregularities and extravagancies which he may discover. This circular does not add to the responsibilities of commanding officers, nor does the circular require accounts approved by the commanding officer to be afterward approved by the chief commissary of subsistence or "an inferior officer," but simply their "examination," a clerical one, and that the party holding the account is the one to be paid, and finally the payment.

The circular does not apply to commissaries who are furnished with funds and are authorized to buy stores.

L. B. NORTHROP,

Commissary-General of Subsistence.


SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. General 'S OFFICE, No. 33.
Richmond, February 10, 1862.

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III. The State of Texas is hereby divided into two military districts, to be called the Eastern and Western Districts of Texans. The country embraced between the northern and eastern boundaries of the State and the eastern shore of Galveston Bay and left bank of the Trinity River to its intersection with the Cross Timbers to Red River, will constitute the Eastern District. All other parts of Texas will constitute the Western District.

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By command of the Secretary of War:

JNO. WITHERS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. ARMY, Richmond, Va., February 13, 1862.

Brigadier General P. O. HEBERT, Galveston, Tex.:

SIR: It is stated here that you have made calls for troops in Texas for a less period than three years or the war. It is not known whether this statement is correct, as the Department has no official communication on the subject. If it be true, however, it is in entire opposition to the whole policy of the Government, and tends to defeat all its measures for raising a permanent body of troops for the defense of the country. You are therefore instructed under no circumstances and in


Page 699 Chapter XXI. CORRESPONDENCE,ETC.-UNION.