Today in History:

468 Series I Volume LII-I Serial 109 - Supplements Part I

Page 468 SW. VA., KY., TENN., MISS., ALA., W. FLA., & N. GA. Chapter LXIV.

law privides teamsters for companies. Some provision should be made for additional teamsters for the field and staff of regiments and for the headquarters of brigades, division, and army corps, and for the general supply trains of the Army. Men from the ranks now receiving no additional compensation for service as teamsters, it is unjust to them to make them perform duties for which $30 per month is paid to citizens working with them.

Third. That the law requiring supplies to be furnished by contract be modified. The law at present throws the furnishing of supplies almost entirely in the hands of large capitalists, thus creating a momopoly. For instance, 5,000 horses, 1,000,000 bushels of grain, or 10,000 tons of hay, no unusual quantities, are required. It is impossible to make contracts with the growers for what small quantities each may have, and when the smaller dealers come in competition with the larger it is generally arranged so that they are bought off, and the contract thrown into the bands of one or two who have the means of buying up all of the article that may be in the market, and them demanding their own price of the Government. If officers could go into the open market, or give notice that they would purchase any quantity of a required article at a certain price, it would be an inducement for the farmers to bring in their produce themselves, as they could get better prices and the Government save what now goes into the pockets of middle men or speculators.

Fourth. That the duties of the different bureaus of the War Department be more distinctly defined. Sometimes an article is required, or a service to be performed, and it is difficult to decive whether the Engineer, Ordnance, Medical, or Quatermaster's Department should furnish the article or perfrom the service, and in all cases of doubt it is expected that the Quatermaster's Departemnt should do so; and if not prepared at the instant, is censured fotoon bridge is to be constructed. Sometimes the Engineer Department does it, but generally no engineer officer is present; or if present, has not the means or materials for building it, and the quatermaster has to furnish the means, or apply materials which may have been obtained for entirely different purposes, thereby crippling the operations of his own department.

Fifht. Tha the depots of the Quatermaster's Department be under the exclusive control of its own officers. The commanding general of a military department, being instrusted with other duties of the highest importance, cannot give attention to the details of the quatermaster's department; and though he may be eminently qualified for the command of troops, may be totally deficient in the qualification and experience requisite for the administration of the most intricate and important department of the service. That his troops should be properly and promply supplied is all that he should exact, without attempting to interfere with the manner in which it is done. Orders requiring the outlay of large sums are frequently given in the name of the general by some young inexperienced officer on his staff, and these orders the quatermaster is expected promptly to comply with, no matter what may be his own opinion as to the necessity. The general at the time may be hundreds of miles away at some other place in his department.

Sixth. That the principal officers of the department be assigned to geographical distircts, under the control of the Quatermaster-General, instead of to military departments, as at present, under the commands of the department commanders. The furnishing of supplies from the


Page 468 SW. VA., KY., TENN., MISS., ALA., W. FLA., & N. GA. Chapter LXIV.