NA, QM 12/1/1863

Quartermaster General's Department
Richmond, Dec. 1st 1863
 
C. O. Sanford ESQR
Pres: R&P RR  {President, Richmond & Petersburg RR}
Petersburg
 
Sir,
   I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 25th ultimo. No application has ever been made to this office by any Railway Company to remove Major Morfit from Petersburg: and if such application was made, a more sufficient cause must be assigned than his refusal to permit freight, consigned to Kent, Paine & Co. to pass over the Government track. If Major Morfit thought it to be his duty to stop these cars, and that the power had been committed to him, he certainly should not be censured by this Bureau. and even should it be necessary to change the policy which his judgment dictates, a simple direction from this Office would remedy this evil. If Major Morfit is removed from Petersburg, it will be because his services are not considered necessary there, or are more needed at some other point: and I regret that he thinks it necessary to anticipate the intentions of this Department, and bring any outside pressure to bear against the views which he supposes it entertains. Major Morfit is fully appreciated, but the War Department must decide where his services can most benefit the Country.
   But I beg to call your attention to an apparent discrepancy between your own impressions and those of Major Morfit. He is under the impression that the Government Track is under his charge and that the cars were stopped by him, You seem to claim this control, and notify one of your "responsibility" for stopping private freight. If this is a "Government" "Track," I presume that it is under the control of some Officer of the Government, and not of any private Railway Co. This matter should be distinctly understood, and I would be glad to have any information on which your action has been based, and which is not in possession of this Bureau.
A. R. Lawton, Q. M. Genl.

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