Augusta County: "B. P. Noland to I. M. St. John," by B. P. Noland, 1878
Summary: This is a letter from former Confederate Chief Commissary B. P. Noland to former Confederate Commissary-General I. M. St. John, in which Noland discusses the state of the Subsistence Bureau in the last days of the Confederacy. Noland writes in response to an inquiry by John. Noland notes that transportation had been mostly destroyed by the last months of the Civil War, crippling the Subsistence Bureau. He also notes that John helped organize an effort to help the Bureau during the last phase of the war.
Middleburg, VA., April 16, 1874.
Dear General-My absence from home for a month, and the consequent accumulation of business, imposes on me the necessity of making but a brief and hurried answer to your inquiries.
Had I the time it would give me pleasure to give you, as desired, a full statement of the organization and working of the Subsistence Bureau, and its condition when you were appointed Commissary-General in February, 1865. I have read with care your statement to Mr. Davis of the operations of the Subsistence Bureau during the dark and closing days of the Confederacy, when you were the chief of that Bureau, and so far as I was cognizant of them, or was at the time informed, I think the statement entirely correct. I was Chief Commissary of Virginia, with the rank of Major and Commissary, was stationed in Richmond, with my office in the same building with that of the Commissary-General, and was in close association with him. I think the plan adopted by your predecessor, Colonel Northrop (which was continued by you), for obtaining for the use of the army the products of the country, was as perfect and worked as effectively as any that could have been devised.
Each State had its chief commissary; was laid off in divisions, with an officer in each, and the divisions subdivided, with agents in each of them. All these officers had the authority to impress supplies; and with this power and the money which was furnished them without stint, all supplies which could be spared from the support of the non-combatants were obtained for the use of the army. The accumulations at the supply depots were regularly reported by the subordinate officers to the Chief Commissary of the State, and by him to the Commissary-General, who, either by general or special order, directed their disposition.
I recollect well when you took charge of the Bureau, that our condition was almost desperate, not because our supplies were exhausted (though exhaustion at a not remote future was looked to and seriously apprehended), but because our transportation from points where supplies were accumulated had almost entirely failed us. All the railroads were in bad condition, and several of the most important ones had been so damaged by the enemy's cavalry as to be unavailing for the transportation of supplies for weeks at a time.
Your action was prompt, energetic and efficient. Your appeal for temporary aid from private resources was nobly responded to by the people. The damaged roads were speedily repaired, and very soon we felt, as I well recollect, in a comparatively comfortable condition; and thus we continued until the evacuation of Richmond. I have no means of stating the quantities of supplies on hand at my several depots at or about that time, for all my official papers were burned, but I know that in Richmond, Danville, Lynchburg, Staunton, Charlottesville, &c., the accumulations were large. I left Richmond at 1 o'clock of the night Richmond was evacuated, with orders from you to make Lynchburg my headquarters, and be ready to forward supplies from that point to the army. I never heard of any order for the accumulation of supplies at Amelia Springs. If such order was given it must have been after the evacuation of Richmond was determined on, and when railroad transportation could not be had; prior to that time such order could readily have been complied with.
Regretting that I cannot make a more full and satisfactory response to your
inquiries,
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
(Signed) B. P. NOLAND,
(Late) Major and Chief
Commissary for Virginia, C. S. A.
General I. M. ST. JOHN, (Late) Commissary-General C. S. A.
Bibliographic Information: Source copy consulted: SHSP, Vol. III, p.107-108, 1877
