He shall submit for the consideration of the Secretary of War, such retrenchments, amendments, additions, or alterations, as experience may demonstrate to be proper in his department. Hesball have authority to employ, or cause to be employed, all agents, extra clerks, superintendents, mechanics, laborers, and other persons necessary to the prompt and efficient performance of all the various duties of his department. Quartermasters, Assistants, and Agents.—A Quartermaster or senior assistant, shall be stationed at each of the following posts, viz: at Boston, New York, Detroit, St. Louis, New Orleans, Charleston, and Philadelphia, who, with the quartermaster attached to the office of Quartermaster General, shall respectively have a general supervision of the department at the posts and stations within the districts hereinafter indicated: The officer assigned to duty at Boston shall have a supervision over the posts and stations within the district composed of the States of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, except the armory at Springfield. The officer stationed at the City of New York shall have a supervision over all the posts within the district composed of the States of Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, East Jersey, and the armory at Springfield. The officer stationed at Detroit shall have a supervision over all the posts on the upper lakes, and their tributaries, including Fort Winnebago. The officer stationed at St. Louis shall have a supervision over all the posts on the Missouri river and its tributaries, and on the Mississippi and its tributaries, above the junction with the Ohio, except Pittsburg and Alleghany arsenal. The senior officer assigned to duty at New Orleans or its vicinity, will have a supervision over all the posts within the districts composed of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, west of the river Saint Marks. The officer stationed at Charleston shall have a supervision over the posts within the States of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, east of the river Saint Marks, including Key West. The quartermaster attached to the office of the Quartermaster General, shall have a supervision over the posts in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. The officer stationed at Philadelphia shall have a supervision over the posts in West Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The foregoing arrangement may be changed or varied, from time to time, by the Quartermaster General, as the interest of the service, in his opinion, may require. It shall be the duty of the officers of the posts indicated, to be prepared at all times to furnish the Quartermaster General with correct information in regard to the military resources of the country, as well as in relation to the state of the roads, and the condition of the water courses within the districts respectively assigned to their supervision; and they shall also, when required to do so by the Quartermaster General, receive and distribute all funds for their respective districts. All junior assistant quartermasters, and other officers acting in the Quartermaster's Department, will consider themselves subordinate to, and subject to the orders of, the principal officers of the department within their respective districts. An assistant commissary, serving at a post where there is no officer of the Quartermaster's Department, will be considered ex officio assistant quartermaster, without any special assignment to duty as such, and may be required to perform any service which might properly be required of a quartermaster or assistant. At posts where neither an officer of the Quartermaster's nor Commissary's Department can be employed, the Quartermaster General may assign the duties of the department for the time being, to any competent officer of the line, with the approbation of the General-in-chief. In the event of the sickness, arrest, or death, of the officer performing the duties of quartermaster or assistant, at any post, the commanding officer may appoint any officer of his command to perform the duties temporarily, which appointment must be reported, without delay, to the Quartermaster General, Appropriations.-The appropriations for the Quartermaster's Department being made for specific objects, they are not to be applied to any other purposes whatsoever should the exigencies of the service, however, in the opinion of the general or other officer commanding in the field, on the upper lakes, or the Indian frontiers, be such as to render it expedient that the officers of the Quartermaster's Department be required to make purchases or payments not authorized by the regulations of the department, nor coming within the range of their appropriate duties, the officer ordering the purchase or payment shall furnish the necessary funds by his draft on the department to which the expenditure properly appertains; and in his letter of advice, a triplicate of which shall be sent direct to the Quartermaster General, and another accompany the draft, it shall be his duty to explain the circumstances fully, so that the Secretary of War may be able to judge of the necessity and propriety of the course adopted. Any account paid by an officer of the Quartermaster's Department by order of a superior officer, shall pass to his credit as a matter of course; but if the sum paid be not admitted at the Treasury, the pecuniary accountability shall devolve on the officer giving the, order, who shall be charged with the amount, and held to a strict accountability for it. Any account paid by an officer of the Quartermaster's Department agreeably to prescribed forms, on the certificate of an officer of the army, shall pass to his credit; and the officer making such certificate shall be held accountable for the accuracy of the facts therein set forth. As far as practicable, all supplies and services required in the operations of the Quartermaster's Department, are procured by contracts, based upon proposals, respecting the same, previously advertised for. When this course is found impracticable or inconvenient to the public service, those supplies and services are obtained by open purchase, or agreement in the market. All contracts entered into, are executed in triplicate, one of which, in all cases, is transmitted to the Quartermaster General's office. They must be accompanied by a bond of the contractor, conditioned for the faithful performance of his stipulations, under penalty of one half the amount involved, and supported by two sureties, of whose sufficiency satisfactory evidence is required, in the absence of personal knowledge. Proposals are not to be opened until the time shall have elapsed within which they are to be received; and in all cases the several bidders have, on application, the privilege of reference to the proposals after they shall have been acted upon A copy of all advertisements for proposals are transmitted to the Quartermaster General's office, with the contracts to which they relate, also, an abstract of the proposals, showing the names and terms of the several bidders. The proposals themselves are carefully preserved for future reference. Officers of the Quartermaster's Department have the right, without reference to any other authority, to pay for all supplies or services for which they are authorized by these regulations to contract; but advances on contracts being strictly prohibited by law, under all circumstances, payment is, in no case, made for supplies until they have been delivered, nor for services until they have been performed. Payment for services or supplies are, as far as practicable, made within the quarter during which the service shall have been rendered, or the supplies furnished When this is not practicable, either from the want of funds or any other cause, the fact must be reported to the Quartermaster General, at the close of the quarter; and all property received, whether paid for or not, must appear on the property returns of the quarter in which it shall have been received. Due bills are not, in any case, given by officers in the Quartermaster's Department; nor are receipts taken by any claimant, whether for supplies or services, unless the amount specified be actually paid. No officer or other person employed in the Quartermaster's Department cau be concerned, directly or indirectly, either for himself or others, in any contract with any department of the government, nor in the purchase of any claim of the government, whether of a soldier or a citizen, nor in the purchase or sale of any article of military supply, except on public account. All officers and agents of the Quartermaster's Department are required to keep and render their accounts, both of money and property, ac cording to the forms prescribed by the regulations; and each officer and agent of the department must forward his accounts to the office of the Quartermaster General, within twenty days after the expiration of the quarter; and it shall be the duty of the Quartermaster General to exanine and transmit them, with his remarks, to the proper accounting officers of the Treasury Department. Any officer or agent of the Quartermaster's Department, who fails to forward at the time prescribed, any report, estimate, return, or statement, which he is required by the regulations to make, is removed, and his neglect is the subject of military investigation, unless he explain the e use of such failure to the satisfaction of the Quartermaster General. The Quartermaster General may, whenever he shall deem it necessary, cause a thorough inspection to be made of the books and accounts of the quartermasters, and of all officers and agents making disbursements on account of the department. This inspection embraces property as well as money; and extends to contracts; to prices paid for articles pur chased; prices paid for transportation; and generally, to every article of supply, and to all effects connected with the department. The books and accounts of the Quartermaster General is subject to a similar inspection. Whenever private buildings are occupied as quarters, or lands for encampments, by the troops of the United States, a reasonable compensa tion is paid to the proprietor by the quartermaster of the department, post, or detachment. When the rate of compensation cannot be satisfactorily agreed upon, disinterested persons are appointed by the quar termaster and proprietor, to appraise and determine the rent. Every officer of the Quartermaster's Department must, before entering upon the duties of his office, give bond to the United States, with two or more sufficient securities, conditioned for the faithful performance of his duty. The Quartermaster General, in the sum of fifty thousand dollars, quartermasters twenty thousand dollars, assistant quartermasters ten thousand dollars, and storekeepers five thousand dollars. The sufficiency of the sureties to be certified by the district attorney, or United States' judge, of the State or Territory in which they reside, or of which they are citizens. There are in the Quartermaster's Department, one Quartermaster General, with the rank of brigadier general; tour Quartermasters, with the rank of majors; and twenty Assistant Quartermasters, to be taken from the line. PURCHASING DEPARTMENT. C. Irvine, Commissary General of Purchases................................................ $3000 00 James Irvine, clerk..... ......... ........ ........ ............... Samuel Wilmar, messenger........ William Banger, clerk, military storekeeper's office...................... 1550 00 1000 00 950 00 700 00 900 00 Charles Litle, do. New York, each with pay, &c. of a captain of infantry. The Commissary General of this department purchases on the orders and estimates of the War Department, all clothing, dragoon saddles and bridles, tents, tent poles, camp kettles, mess pans, bed sacks, and all other articles required for the public service for the army of the United States, excepting only such as are ordered to be purchased by the Ord nance, Quartermaster's, Subsistence, and Medical Departments. All articles provided by the Commissary General of Purchases, and in a state fit for immediate issue to the troops, must be deposited in the military store near the Schuylkill, and held subject to the orders of the War Department. This bureau has been added to those attached to the War Department, for the purpose of securing more system and responsibility in supplying clothing for the troops. Besides a general superintendency as to economy in obtaining articles necessary for the clothing of the army the disposition of them when prepared for use, is entrusted to the officer in charge of this department. His duty is to prepare estimates for clothing and camp equipage, to be provided by the "Purchasing Department,” as well as the detailed estimates of those supplies issued to the army. He is required to keep sealed patterns, of every article procured under contracts, and to compare them from time to time, and whenever he deems. it necessary, with the articles furnished, to establish their conformity as well as their quality. He is charged with all the correspondence of the department, upon subjects connected with the clothing of the army, and with the appropriations and requisitions. It is his duty, also, to procure information upon all topics relating to the clothing; and to suggest to the Secretary of War such alterations relative thereto as the good of the service may require, and to point out any disadvantages he may observe attending the present system. Patterns of every part of the dress of the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of the army, made in conformity with the requirements of the general order of the 11th June, 1832, restoring the facings worn by the revolutionary army, are also kept in this department. PAY DEPARTMENT. ...... .......... $2500 00 1700 00 1700 00 ......................... 1100 00 700 00 Nathan Towson, Paymaster General.......... Nathaniel Frye, chief clerk.. William Rich, clerk........ William D. Beall, clerk....... Jacob Brodbeck, messenger................... The Paymaster General is stationed at the seat of government; he is charged with the military responsibilities of this department, in all its details. The subordinate officers, being confined exclusively to the dis bursement of public money, are subject only to the order of the Secretary of War and the Paymaster General, except that they are liable to arrest by the senior officer of the department or command, to which they may be arranged for the regular payment of the troops. It being provided by law that "the troops be paid in such manner, that the arrears shall, at no time, exceed two months, unless the circumstances of the case shall render it una voidable," regular payments become due on the last days of February, April, June, August, October and December, in each year. Payments are made on those days, or as soon after as the situation of the troops and other unavoidable circumstances will, permit, and in the same rotation; in order that the payments at all posts may be at regular periods. There are, in the Pay Department, besides the Paymaster General fourteen paymasters, authorized by the act of March 2, 1821. SUBSISTENCE DEPARTMENT. Brevet Brig. Gen. George Gibson, Commissary General of Subsistence. |