[Indorsement.]

BUREAU OF SUBSISTENCE,

Richmond, February 15, 1865.

Respectfully returned to the Honorable Secretary of War.

Some whisky is needed for issue to the troops when much exposed, and more for the manufacture of vinegar. The distillation was ordered in Burke County, N. C., because of the difficulty of transporting the corn from that section of country. As no distillation is permitted in Virginia or North Carolina along the lines of railroad, I see no reason to change my decision.

L. B. NORTHROP,

Commissary-General of Subsistence.

CIRCULAR.] WAR OFFICE,

February 7, 1865.

The Secretary of War desires that you will prepare at once, for his information, a succinct but clear statement of the mans and resources you have on hand for carrying on the business of your Bureau and your ability for carrying it on, and what impediments exist and what is necessary for that purpose.

Respectfully,

R. H. H. KEAN,

Chief of Bureau of War.

(To Chiefs of Bureaus.)

MONTGOMERY, ALA., February 7, 1865.

General J. C. BRECKINRIDGE,

Richmond, Va.:

GENERAL: Lieutenant Gordon, of the Army of Virginia, and a brother of Major-General Gordon, will hand you this letter. He will show you the authority he received from the late Secretary of War to raise a cavalry company in Georgia and explain his wishes in reference to the change which he proposes. Whilst I cannot recommend the application as made, and am firm in the conviction that all such irregular authorities only gender confusion, yet I think the services of Lieutenant Gordon might prove valuable in North Alabama, and that if ordered to report to me there would no great difficulty in raising at least a company for him with which to operate in that now infected section of the State.

Although this communication is not intended as official, I hope you will excuse me for requesting your attention to the condition of the reserve forces and of the conscript service in this State as reported to the late Secretary of War in communications of the 15th and 17th of December last. To render the reserve forces efficient the change in officering them is indispensable. To correct abuses, if not actual corruption, in the conscript service, and to infuse energy and efficiency into the system, there must be a change in what I consider its present organization. If the general of the reserves in each State is held responsible for the conscript service in his State, he should certainly have full authority to change and remove officers from positions for which he found they were incapacitated, or in which he believed they were acting improperly, if not corruptly. The tone of public