[Fourth indorsement.]

AUGUST 17, 1864.

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL and

COMMISSARY GENERAL:

Note the suggestion of the President. Can you act on it?

J. A. SEDDON.

[Fifth indorsement.]

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Richmond, August 18, 1864.

Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War.

The suggestion of the President really embodies the present practice. Requisitions in advance, showing the wants of a command for each quarter, are called for, and orders are promptly given for issue thereon. An unexpected emergency like the present can readily be responded to through telegrams. The importunities of General Maury on this subject induced me to place, some moths ago, the depot at Mobile at his disposal. It had hardly been done before his chief quartermaster drew at one time twice as much of a very scarce article - stationery - as his requisition therein called for for the whole command, and for the entire quarter. Abuses like this do not incline me to favor a further relaxation of the rule which makes the supplies of this department gathered at established depots independent of military commanders. General Maury now controls the Mobile depot, and orders, moveover, have been issued directing that supplies be furnished to his command, including State reserves, from the depot at Montgomery, and even from that at Columbus, Miss. This action will afford all the relief necessary.

A. R. LAWTON,

Quartermaster-General.

[Sixth indorsement.]

AUGUST 21, 1864.

Write to General Maury that it is not deemed expedient to change, in his department or elsewhere, the general system which has been adopted, making the bureau officers for collection of supplies subject only to requisition; that the rule complained of by him, it seems to me, may be, and should be, readily obviated by previous estimates. An unexpected emergency may at any time be readily met by telegraphic communication. To meet your present needs the Quartermaster-General informs me that he has issued orders, &c. (Give the closing paragraph of Quartermaster-General's indorsement.) To show the inconvenience of departure from the general system the Quartermaster-General mentions a case some months since in which your quartermaster, being allowed to draw, drew at once for a very scarce article - stationery; at one time drew as much as his requisition for the whole command for the entire quarter called for. Such abuses would reopen the supply department to the most serious embarrassments, as had often between experienced before the adoption of the general system.

J. A. SEDDON.