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Vol. III.

July 14th, 1873.

Hon.

Sir—In pursuance of your suggestion, I have the honor to report, from the best accessible data, the closing operations of the Confederate States commissary service. As you are probably aware, many of the more important papers of the Subsistence Bureau were lost during the Richmond fire and the subsequent retreat. It accordingly became essential to verify in the most careful manner all statements herein resting simply upon personal recollection. This has been done; and hence the time which has been allowed to pass since the first intimation of your wishes.

Early in February, 1865, I received the order of transfer from the direction of the Nitre and Mining Corps to that of the Subsistence Bureau. A very brief inquiry into the available resources of the latter sufficed to disclose a state of affairs calling for extreme and indeed exceptional measures to meet immediate and very urgent requisitions. The more remote future I found too critically involved in the military operations, then progressing in Virginia and the Carolinas, to require more than general consideration. Beyond the most trusted confidential officers of the Executive and the War Department, few knew how far military events and hostile pressure had come to control the power of the Subsistence Bureau to execute its ordinary duties. I expected to find greater embarrassments in arranging a prompt and ample collection of supplies