| Quartermaster General's Department |
| Richmond, March 21st, 1864 |
| |
| Genl. R. E. Lee |
| Comdg etc |
| |
| General, |
| I had the honor to receive on the 14th
inst yours of the 10th ins. Appreciating fully the great importance
& extreme difficulty of supplying the army with food & forage,
I have spared no efforts to have them promptly transported from the
far South, now our (almost) sole reliance. |
| Great pressure has recently been brought
to bear on the main trunk railways, by the stoppage of passenger
trains, express cars etc, and a very large amount of corn &
commissary stores have reached Richmond in the few days that have
elapsed since I had the pleasure of seeing you here. Never before
during this way, have so many public stores been moved within the same
number of days by these Roads. But like "forced marches" in
an emergency these results cannot be kept up permanently. Our efforts
will not be relaxed, however; & I hope for better things in
future. |
| I will add, that I received the first
notice of subsistence stores being at Goldsboro awaiting
transportation after your letter reached me; & they have now all
come forward. |
| I take leave, General, to quote from your
letter as follows: "I believe that our Railroad transportation
can be so managed as to bring all these supplies without delay besides
doing the other work required of them, & that all the difficulties
can be overcome by attention, energy, & diligence on the part of
the officers in charge of this transportation." As this opinion
differs from any I have received elsewhere, I would be truly pleased
to have any suggestion which would tend to insure this result; &
if there is an officer who can discharge the duties with satisfaction,
& with a fair prospect of accomplishing what you think quite
possible, I beg that you will not hesitate to indicate him that the
assignment may be made. I beg you to remember, General, that up to
this time last year, not a car load of corn nor subsistence stores had
been brought from points beyond Raleigh for your army. Now, we
are feeding the soldiers & horses of that army to a great extent from
Georgia. If the supply of Railroad transportation was even then
found so deficient as to cause serious alarm to the Govt. how can they
now meet these immensely increased demands "without delay?"
"& besides doing the other work required of them?" Not a
bar of R. R. iron, nor a single Locomotive has been brought into the
Confederacy during that time, nor has the call for transportation of
troops, ordnance stores, etc. been such as to diminish the "other
work required of them." I am willing to be stimulated to the
discharge of my duty General & shall always be glad to know your
wants & your views. But I beg you not to expect impossibilities.
I admit that we have been able to accomplish so much now in the way of
transportation; & sustain life with so much less in the way of
food than we dreamed of 3 years since that my hopes are strong for the
future. The arrivals at Richmond within the last week were such that
your supplies for the present will only be limited by the capacity of
the {Virginia} Central RR. One passenger
train only each day is now permitted between Richmond & Augusta,
Geo. And it is hoped that this arrangement will increase our supplies
here. |
| A. R. Lawton, Q. M. Genl. |
|