OR, Series 1, Vol. 51, Part 2, Page 1067

Subsistence Department, C. S. A.
Richmond
March 13, 1865
 
Hon. J. C. Breckinridge
Secretary of War
 
Sir,
   In connection with my communication of the 10th instant, in reply to your call for information, I am now reluctantly compelled to ask your attention to the dispatches of this morning from Raleigh. My estimate of the means of procuring subsistence for the army until the next crop was based on uninterrupted railroad communication to Abingdon, Va. {by the Richmond & Danville RR and the Virginia & Tennessee RR}, and Charlotte {by the Richmond & Danville RR, the Piedmont RR and the North Carolina RR} and Goldsborough, N. C. {by the Richmond & Danville RR, the Piedmont RR and the North Carolina RR} If the latter point with its circle of supply be lost, the problem of army subsistence becomes to the last degree uncertain. I ask that due stress be given to this consideration in using my report.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
I. M. St. John
Commissary General

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