Summary:
This Confederate Quartermaster General's circular, issued in March, 1863,
establishes guidelines for the purchase of army supplies. The order establishes
a supply depot at Staunton.
Richmond,
March 24, 1863.
To avoid conflict and competition between the officers of this department in the purchase of army supplies, and, as far as possible, between officers of this department and those of the Ordnance or Commissary Department, in the purchase of supplies common to both, quartermaster are especially directed to observe the following regulations:
1. The following named States will constitute separate purchasing district and the officers herein designated will have respectively in each the exclusive control or through subordinates, of all purchases of supplies needed by this department: (1) Virginia, Lieut. Col. L. Smith, Richmond; (2) North Carolina, Maj. W. W. Pierce, Raleigh; (3) South Carolina, Maj. Hutson Lee, Charleston; (4) Georgia, Maj. I. T. Winnemore, Augusta; (5) Alabama, Maj. J. L. Calhoun, Montgomery; (6) Mississippi, Maj. L. Mims, Jackson; (7) Florida Maj. H. R. Teasdale, Lade City; (8) Louisiana, Maj. G. W. Grice Alexandria; (9) Texas, Maj. T. A. Washington, San Antonio; (10) Arkansas and Missouri, Maj. J. B. Burton, Little Rock; (11) Tennessee and Kentucky, Maj. James Glover, Knoxville.
2. It shall be the duty of these principal purchasing officers to establish and from time to time regulate the prices at which army supplies are to be brought, and to confer with each other so as to secure, as far as practicable, uniformity therein, making due allowance for differences of locations and other circumstances. They will require from their subordinates monthly reports showing the quantity of supplies purchased or manufactured by them, what thereof has been issued, and the residue on hand. A summary of these, together with a similar statement of his own operations, will be forwarded monthly by the chief officer to the Quartermaster-Gen., and the same will be accompanied by general remarks showing what supplies, either manufactured or in the raw material, he may have excess beyond his future wants, so that it may be transferred elsewhere when needed. The average cost of each article of supply will also be stated.
3. Quartermasters stationed at the various posts within either of said purchasing districts will be the subordinate purchasing officers therein, and before buying supplies or contracting therefor they will confer with the principal officer and conform to such general or specific instructions as he may give respecting the price, quantity, or quality of the supplies bought.
4. Main depots of supplies will be established at Richmond and Staunton, Va.; Raleigh, N. C.; Columbus and Atlanta, Ga.; Huntsville and Montgomery, Ala.; Jackson, Miss.; Alexandria, La.; Little Rock, Ark.; Knoxville, Tenn.; San Antonio, Tex., or elsewhere, as may hereafter be indicated. These will not be subject to the orders of commanding generals, but will be exclusive control of the Quartermaster-Gen., and issue therefore will be made only of requisition approved by him.
Minor depots may be established by the principal purchasing officers at such other points within their district as the necessities of the service may require, and their locations will be reported, from time to time, to this office.
5. The chief quartermaster of each separate army will draw supplies, as far as may be practicable, from the established depots of stores and will make purchases thereof in the military department within which the army operates only when circumstances render that course absolutely necessary. He will then, whether acting in person or through subordinates, confer if possible with the principal purchasing officer of the district within he may be, and use every precaution to avoid competition.
6. Forage and fuel purchased in the vicinity of an army are excepted from the above restriction. These can be best provided on the spot, to the extent that the country affords them, and by the field quartermaster; and the chief quartermaster will be careful to see that the same are procured and paid for in accordance with the instructions issued by the War Department. Forage should always be drawn, when circumstances permit, from regions in advance of our armies and those most exposed to the enemy. Field quartermasters may also purchase, under the direction of the commanding officers supplies of any character issued by this department from a region of country occupied temporarily by the forces of the Confederate States and where no system of purchase is in operation.
7. When special agents shall be sent out by the Quartermaster-Gen. to obtain supplies, they will be instructed to report to the principal officer of any district into which they may go, and confer with him, to avoid competition.
8. All officers of this department will endeavor to avoid competing in prices with commissaries in the purchase of corn, or with ordnance officers in the purchase of hides, leather, harness, &c. They will report also to this office all cases of unnecessary competition brought about by the action of any officer or agent of eight of the bureaus referred to.
9. No officer of this department will send an agent to a foreign country, nor will they visit or send to a sea-port town of this Confederacy to buy supplies imported from abroad. The latter purchases will be made, always, by the post quartermaster on instructions received from this office, or from the principal purchasing officer of the district. When such supplies are removed for speculation after being rejected by the post quartermaster on account of price, they will not be purchased elsewhere.
10. No purchasing officer will ever go into another district to buy supplies, but will procure the same, when it may be necessary, through the local officer therein.
11. Any officer of this department who holds an executory contract for army supplies in another purchasing district than that in which he is stationed shall transfer the same, upon the receipt of this circular, to the principal purchasing office of the district where such contract is to be executed. Field quartermaster, regardless of their location, will make a similar transfer of all contracts, expect such as come within section No. 6 of these instructions.
12. The foregoing rules will not be taken to interfere with the operations of Maj. F. W. Dillard, as heretofore charged with the receipt of hides from the Commissary Department and the manufacture of shoes therefrom. He will continue to have the exclusive control thereof in the State of Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina, and all quartermasters within those States will dispose of hides received from commissaries as he may direct. Not will they interfere with those of Maj. Charles S. Carrington, who will act independently as heretofore in providing forage for the armies of Virginia and North Carolina.
13. Purchasing officers will employ agents only under authorities, general or special, derived from this office. The authorities heretofore given must be renewed immediately, and in submitting applications for the retention of old agents, therein names, the date of the authority under which they were employed, and the rate of their compensation will be stated. When authority is asked and granted to employ new agents whose names have not been furnished in advance, a report thereof shall be made promptly, stating who are so engaged and at what compensation. In every case such facts will be set forth as go to show the necessity for the proposed services, and the application will be forwarded through the principal officer of the district for his approval or remark. All officers will furnish their agents with written evidence of the agency, showing the object and extent thereof, and when such agency is discontinued the evidence mentioned will be taken in and the fact reported to this office. Every officer will be careful to settle up the transaction of his own agents.
The observance of the foregoing is important in restraining abuses, decreasing the number of employees from civil life, and leading to the detection of importers speculating in the name of the Government.
14. All quartermasters will be held to strict accountability for any departure from these instructions, and department commanders and other subordinate officers are prohibited from employing field quartermaster or agents in making purchases in violation of the same.
EMPLOYEES OF QUARTERMASTER AND THEIR COMPENSATION.
To limit the number of employees in this department and their compensation, all officers thereof will be careful to conform to the following rules:
To troops in the field the allowance shall be:
1. To each regimental or battalion quartermaster, in addition to the quartermaster-sergeant, one wagon-master and, when the same shall be necessary, one clerk, both to be detailed from the command.
2. To each brigade quartermaster or quartermaster attached to a division, one wagon-master and, when the same shall be necessary, one clerk, both to be detailed from the command.
3. To all commissary, ordnance, and quartermasters' trains, one wagon-master for every ten teams, either hired or derailed, and if hired, wages not to exceed $50 a month. When these trains exceed in number fifty teams, a superintending wagon-master for the whole will be allowed, at a compensation not exceeding $75 a month.
Station and depots:
4. The number of employees at stations and depots will be regulated specially by this office with reference to the necessities of each case. Officers thereat will apply in all cases to the Quartermaster-Gen. for authority to retain old employed or engage new ones. These applications will be made accordance with the provisions of preceding section No. 12, in respect to the employment of agents by purchasing officers, and when forwarded by officers in the field will come through the chief quartermaster of the army to which they are attached.
5. No quartermaster serving with troops, or at a depot in the field, will be allowed to employ agents, and all authorities heretofore granted are revoked.
6. No application should embrace the name of a civilian as clerk, Unless he was employed by a quartermaster, under the sanction of this office, prior to the act of Congress of February 16, 1862. In no case will the compensation of a clerk from civil life exceed the sum of $1,000 per annum.
7. All reports called for by this circular shall be distinct from the monthly returns of persons and articles hired.
A. C. MYERS,
Quartermaster-Gen.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 4, Volume 2, Serial No. 128, Pages 453-456, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
