to barracks or quarters, and to the accountability for supplies of the quartermaster's and purchasing departments. One assistant quartermas ter is attached to the office of the quartermaster general, who in addition to his other duties is charged, with the disbursements at Washington, and in the absence of the quartermaster general, has the direction of the office. There is also attached to the office, as many subaltern officers, &c. as the service from time to time requires. All communications relating to the duties of the department, or to any branch or officer thereof, except from commanding generals of divisions departments of armies, must be addressed to the quartermaster general. It is the duty of the Quartermaster general to make himself acquainted with the frontiers, both maritime and interior, and with the avenues leading to the contiguous Indian and foreign territories, with the resources of the country, in military supplies, and the means of transportation, particularly of the districts on the frontiers, with the most eligible points for concentrating troops and collecting supplies, whether in relation to offensive or defensive operations, with the relative expenses of concentrating at particular positions, and the advantages of those positions. It is also his duty to designate the routes of communication between different posts and armies-the course of military roads-and the sites for permanent and temporary depots of provisions and military stores. The officers of the quartermaster's department are requested to collect information in relation to all these points, and to make themselves acquainted with the state of the roads, the course and description of the rivers, and the most direct routes between the different military posts within their respective departments. The quartermaster general can assign the officers of his department to such stations as he may think proper, and officers so assigned cannot be removed from their stations, nor be subject to detail, nor be employed] upon any other duties than those of their department, except by his order or that of the Secretary of War. The officers of this department must provide quarters and transportation for the troops, and transportation for all military stores, provisions, camp and garrison equipage, and artillery; and provide for opening and repairing roads, and constructing and repairing bridges, which may be necessary to the movements of any part of the army. They must provide good and sufficient store houses for all military supplies, and for all provisions deposited by the commissary general and his assistants, or under contracts between individuals and the government, and appoint storekeepers, when necessary, for the custody of such stores or provisions, or any other property of the government placed there. They purchase all forage, fuel, straw and stationary, for the use of the troops, and have the same transported and issued agreeably to the regulations. They purchase dragoon and artillery horses, and horses, oxen, wagons, carts and boats, for the transportation of the baggage, and for garrison purposes; and provide materials for constructing and repairing barracks, hospitals, stables and bridges. No purchase can be made on public account, in time of peace, by any officer of the quartermaster's department, but of the articles above enumerated, except by special authority from the Secretary of War, communicated through the quartermaster general, or at the risk of the officer fordering the supplies. Officers of this department will receive from the purchasing and sub sistence departments, and from the ordnance depots, all medical and bospital stores, provisions, arms, ammunition and ordnance, and trans port the same to the place of destination, and make distribution thereof, agreeably to the direction given to the articles by the commissary gene ral of purchases, the commissary general of subsistence, the or inauce of ficer, or the general commanding the division or department to which they are destined. As far as practicable, all supplies and services required in the operations of the quartermaster's department, will be procured by contracts, based upon proposals respecting the same, previously advertised for.When this course is found impracticable, or inconvenient to the public service, those supplies and services will be obtained by open purchase or greement in the market. All contracts entered into, will be executed in triplicate, one of which will, in all cases, be transmitted to the quartermaster general's office.They will be accompanied by a bond of the contractor, conditioned for the faithful perf rmance of his stipulations, under penalty of one-half the amount involved, and supported by two sureties, of whose sufficiency sansfactory evidence will be required, in the absence of personal knowledge. Proposals will not be opened until the time shall have elapsed within which they are to be received, and in all cases, the several bidders shall, on application, have the privilege of reference to the proposals after they shall have been acted upon. A copy of all advertisements for proposals will be transmitted to the quartermaster generals office, with the con tracts to which they relate; also, an abstract of the proposals, showing the names and terms of the several bidders. The proposals themselves will be carefully preserved for future reference. Officers of the Quartermaster's department have the right, without reference to any other authority, to pay for all supplies or services for which they are authorized by these regulations to contract; but advances on contracts being strictly prohibited by law, under all circumstances, payment shall in no case be made for supplies until they have been delivered, nor for services until they have been performed. Payment for services or supplies shall, as far as practicable, be made within the quarter during which the service shall have been rendered, or the supplies furnished. When this shall not be practicable, either from the want of funds, or any other cause, the fact must be reported to the quartermaster general at the close of the quarter; and all property received, whether paid for or not, must appear on the property returns of the quarter in which it shall have been received. Due bills shall not, in any case, be given by officers of the, quartermaster's department; nor shall receipts be taken from any claimant, whether for supplies or services, unless the amount specified be actually paid. No officer or other person employed in the quartermaster's department shall be concerned, directly or indirectly, either for himself or others, in any contract with any department of the government, nor in the purchase of any claim of the government, whether of a soldier or a citizen, nor in the purchase or sale of any article of military supply, except on public account. All officers and agents of the quartermaster's department, will keep and render their accounts, both of money and property, according to the forms prescribed by the regulations; and each officer and agent of the department shall forward his accounts to the office of the quartermaster general, within twenty days after the expiration of the quarter; and it shall be the duty of the quartermaster general to examine and transmit them, with his remarks, to the proper accounting officers of the treasury department. Any officer or agent of the quartermaster's department, who shall fail to forward, at the time prescribed, any report, estimate, return, or statement, which he is required by the regulations to make, shall be removed, and his neglect be the subject of military investigation; unless he explain the cause of such failure, to the satisfaction of the quartermaster general. The quartermaster general may, whenever he shall deem it necessary, cause a thorough inspection to be made of the books and accounts of the quartermasters, and of all officers and agents making disbursements on account of the department. This inspection skall embrace property as well as money; and extend to contracts-to prices paid for articles purebased-prices paid for transportation—and, generally, to every article of supply, and to all effects connected with the department. The books and accounts of the quartermaster general, will be subject to a similar inspection Whenever private buildings shall be occupied as quarters, or lands for encampments, by the troops of the United States, a reasonable compensation shall be paid to the proprietor by the quartermaster of the department, post, or detachment. When the rate of compensation cannot be satisfactorily agreed upon, disinterested persons shall be appointed by the quartermaster and proprietor, to appraise and determine the rent. Every officer of the quartermaster's department must, before entering upon the duties of his office, give boud to the United States, with two or more sufficient sureties, conditioned for the faithful performance of his duty. The quartermaster general, in the sum of fifty thousand dollars, quartermasters twenty thousand, assistant qartermasters ten thousand, and store keepers, five thousand dollars. The sufficiency of the sureties to be certified by the district attorney, or United States judge, of the State or Territory in which they reside, or of which they are citizens There are in the Quartermaster's Department. one Quartermaster General, with the rank of Brigadier General; four Quartermasters, with the rank of Majors; and twenty assistant Quartermasters taken from the line. PURCHASING DEPARTMENT. C Irvine, Commissary General of Purchases......... ................ 950 00 700 00 Samuel Wilmar, messenger............................................................................................................ and bridles, tents, tent poles, camp kettles, mess pans, bed sacks, and all other articles required for the public service for the army of the United States, excepting only such as are ordered to be purchased by the Ordnance, Quartermaster's, Subsistence, and Medical departments. All articles provided by the commissary general of purchases, and in a state fit for immediate issue to the troops must be deposited in the military store near the Schuylkill, and held subject to the orders of the War Department. The purchasing department is subject only to the orders of the Secre tary of War. The office of the Commissary General of this department is in Philadelphia. CLOTHING DEPARTMENT. Brevet Major John Garland, 3d Infantry. This Bureau has been added to those attached to the War Department, for the purpose of securing more system and responsibility in supplying clothing for the troops. Besides a general superintendency as to economy in obtaining articles necessary for the clothing of the army, the disposition, of them when prepared for use, is entrusted to the officer in charge of this Department. He is required to keep sealed patterns, of every article procured under contracts, and to compare them from time to time, and whenever he deems it necessary, with the articles furnished, to establish their conformity as well as their quality. He is charged with all the correspondence of the Department, upon subjects connected with the clothing of the army, and with the appropriations and requisitions. It is his duty, also, to procure information upon all topics relating to the clothing; and to suggest to the Secretary of War such alterations relative thereto as the good of the service may require, and to point out any disadvantages he may observe attending the present system. Patterns of every part of the dress of the officers, non-commissioned ofcers, and privates of the army, made in conformity with the requirements of the General Order of 11th June, 1832, restoring the facings worn by revolutionary army, are also kept in this department. PAY DEPARTMENT. Nathan Towson, Pay Master General...... T. P. Andrews, Pay Master....... 1700 00 Nathaniel Frye, jun. Chief Clerk............................................................ William D. Beall, Clerk.............................................. .................................... ..... 1100 00 700 00 The Paymaster General is stationed at the seat of Government: be'is charged with the military responsibilities of this department, in all its details. The subordinate officers, being confined exclusively to the disbursement of public money, are subject only to the orders of the Secretary of War and the Paymaster general, except that they are liable to rest by the senior officer of the department or command to which they ay be arranged for the regular payment of the troops. It being provided by law that "the troops be paid in such manner, that the arrears shall, at no time, exceed two months, unless the circumstan ces of the case shall render it unavoidable," regular payments become due on the last days of February, April, June, August, October, and Docember, in each year. Payments are made on those days or as soon after as the situation of the troops and other unavoidable circumstances will permit, and in the same rotation; in order that the payments at all posts may be at regular periods. There are, in the Pay Department, besides the Paymaster General, fourteen Paymasters, authorized by the act of March 2, 1821. SUBSISTENCE DEPARTMENT. Brevet Brig. Gen. George Gibson, Commissary General of Subsistenco. ... 1350 00 800 00 1000 00 Charles G. Wilcox, Clerk, subsistence of the Army......... 900 00 The present mode of supplying the army with subsistence was estab lished by the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th sections of an act of Congress passed April 14th, 1818, entitled "An act regulating the Staff of the Army of the United States;" and by the 8th section "of an act to reduce and fix the military peace establishment," passed 2d March, 1821. By the former, it was to continue for five years; and it was renewed for five more by "an act to continue the present mode of supplying the army,' passed 23d January, 1823; and again for five years, by act of same title passed 2d March, 1829. The first named act provides for a Commissary General of Subsistence, whose duties are to make estimates of expenditures for his department, contract and purchase subsistence for the army; regulate the transmission of funds to his assistants; make payments to contractors; adjust accounts for settlement; locate his assistants at their several stations and, in general, provide for the proper administration of his department in all its ramifications. This act provides, also, for as many assistant commissaries as might be required, to be taken from the subalterns of the line. The 8th section of the act of 2d March, 1821, limits these assistants to fifty, and subjects them to the performance of duty in the quartermaster's department. By the act of 2d March, 1829, "the better to enable the Commissary General of Subsistence to carry into effect the provisions of the above specified acts," two Commissaries are provided The Surgeon General is stationed at the City of Washington; he is the director and immediate accounting officer of the medical department. |