Letter to Henry R. Jackson, 1861

Scope and content:

Written from Staunton, Virginia. Letter regards sending teams and organizational problems.

Language:

English

Other descriptive data:

Confederate States of America

Genl. H. R. Jackson

General-

You may depend upon it General that the Quarter Masters Department in the North West never can be managed with system & regularity until first rate business & experienced men are commissioned & placed at the important points on the line, & when commissioning they give security. Money can be drawn by them & many supplies purchased. Whereas when men are only occupying the place of assistants they are powerless & they probably never see their principal once in two months. Unless this Department is thoroughly organized on the different lines the Army must suffer greatly in the coming winter. You can judge of it by what your division has already suffered. I know you have enough to do without attending to these details.

I expect to join my regiment in 8 or 10 days & hope to get the Department in working order in your line before I left. I hope you will write a letter to the Secretary of War on the subject. I have placed Capt. Funkhouser on the road in charge of the Pony Express line & Capt Mason in charge of the repairs to the road, and a good business man is needed in the Quarter Masters Dept at Monterey whose duty should be to purchase all the supplies of forage & c & also see to the proper management of the wagons, horses & c, and also to have repair shops, blacksmith & wood shops at that point. I have written [illegible] my views & I recd. a letter from General Lee yesterday which I enclosed to the Secretary of War stating the great difficulty about transportation on that line. I have urged this most important matter upon the War Department & if you concur with me hope you will urge it also. Would it not be well to have a commissioned Quarter Master at Greenbrier River also.

P.S. J. Whitmore the wagon master in charge of the train of 15 wagons [turned] over [cars] [illegible] with the trains. & if you should order it in for corn & hay he is acquainted with this country.

Subjects:

Confederate States of America. Army—Supplies and stores
Correspondence

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