War Department, C. S. A
| Richmond, Va., April 19, 1863 |
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| General R. E. Lee |
| Commanding, etc |
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| General, |
| Your letter of the 17th instant
causes concern and anxiety respecting the sanitary condition of your
army, and stimulates the efforts I am earnestly making to increase
your supplies of subsistence. I have here with me now, in
consultation, Colonel Wadley, the agent of transportation, and
to-morrow there will be a meeting of the presidents of the most
important railroads, whom I have summoned to confer with me on the
best means of improving and increasing the means of railroad
transportation. From all that I can learn, I incline to think the
difficulty in the past has been as much attributable to want of
arrangement and efficiency in the commissariat's agents as in the
deficiency of the railroad transportation.
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| I have made arrangements from which I have
reason to expect the arrival here daily for some weeks to come of
100,000 pounds of bacon, and at that rate supplies must soon so
accumulate as to allow the return to the full ration, and at the
same time prepare a reserve store, in case of any accident or
extraordinary demand. This supply, however, will be drawn from the
reserve stores of the commissariat at Atlanta, Ga. In addition,
considerable amounts may be expected from the operations of Generals
Longstreet and Hill, and from the action of the people In response
to the President's proclamation. We have, as I have heretofore
mentioned to you, contracts for large supplies from external
sources, which should begin to be delivered by May 1. These, in
their nature, must be precarious, and I do not, consequently, count
too strongly upon them. Altogether, I trust the pinch of the
struggle for supplies of your army has been passed, and that our
gallant soldiers may soon be freed from the necessity of the
privations they have so nobly endured. My own attention is being
given to the subject, and no effort certainly will be spared to
effect a result so justly due them.
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| With high esteem, very respectfully, yours |
| J. A. Seddon |
| Secretary of War |
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