{Subsistence Bureau}
| November
20, 1863 |
| |
| Report on subsistence |
| On the 18th of
November, 1862, a report was submitted to the Secretary of War. This
report, which embodied a comparative view of commissary supplies and
resources, is added at foot of this report. A statement similar to
that, as far as it can be made so from materials in this Bureau, is
now submitted, as also some remarks on the present and prospective
supply of breadstuffs.
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| *****
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| Whether or not there is wheat enough
in the Confederacy to bread our armies and our whole people is not
known to this Bureau, but it believes there is more than enough of
corn to make up any deficiency in this respect; that, however, is
not found in due proportion in Virginia, but is widely distributed
over large and distant areas, and if delivered at all must be hauled
from farther south on railroads. But the present railroad
transportation is inadequate for the purpose. It is reported by
Major Carrington, quartermaster, that he will want for General Lee's
army alone 1,500,000 bushels of corn {requiring
10,000 cars in roughly 700 trains} above what he ascertains
to be the surplus of Virginia. This Bureau estimates its wants for
the same purpose at 250,000 bushels. The single track from Weldon {the
Petersburg RR}, even if undisturbed by the enemy, cannot
transport it in addition to its other necessary carriage. If the
railroad were completed from
Greensborough to Danville {the Piedmont RR} it
might be done without difficulty, and the president of the road, who
has been asked to give an opinion on the subject, says that the
connection can be made in three months' time if the Government will
put an adequate force on the road, counting the time from the
commencement of work by that force.
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| This difficulty of
transportation has been seen from the beginning of the war, and the
Bureau has made constant representations of the fact.
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| ***** |
| L. B. Northrop |
| Commissary-General of Subsistence |
|