L. B. Northrop, April 15, 1868

Sir: It is determined to establish as soon as possible a thorough system in the collection of supplies that can be inaugurated at an early day, by which competition between the commissaries and agents of this Bureau and the army commissaries and all other Government agents will be entirely prevented. This system, briefly shadowed forth, is as follows:

A chief purchasing commissary of this Bureau will be selected for each State in the Confederacy, who will divide his State into districts (say some four or five, with a chief purchasing commissary or agent selected for each district, whose duties shall correspond in his district with the duties of the chief commissary in the State, these districts to be subdivided and sub-commissaries or agents selected for each subdivision) who will control and direct all purchases and business done by these district commissaries or agents and through them their sub-agents. The chief district commissaries or agents will be nominated by the chief State commissary to this Bureau for appointment, and their sub-agents or commissaries shall be nominated by the chief district commissaries or agents to the chief State commissary for appointment upon the approval of this Bureau. This latter clause, however, will apply literally only to the new commissaries or agents which it may be found necessary, in the working of this system, to appoint, because, as far as possible, commissaries or agents already in service must be continued. The commissaries and agents must be competent persons in every respect, thoroughly active and energetic and sufficiently numerous to obtain every pound of surplus supplies in the State. But it must not be forgotten that the fewest number capable of accomplishing the desired object is greatly preferable for many reasons. In all new appointments commissions will not be issued, but the appointment will be that of agents.

You have been selected as the chief commissary for the State of , and will proceed at once to inaugurate the above system gradually, but with as much energy and dispatch as is at all compatible with itsharmonious accomplishment. You will at once forward a copy of this circular to all the commissaries and agents of this Bureau in your State, and obtain from them immediately all the information necessary to enable you properly to divide your State into districts, and make your nominations for chief district commissaries and agents, and report the same to this Bureau as soon as practicable. You will also require from the said commissaries and agents of this Bureau in your State (a list of which commissaries with their respective posts is herein inclosed—the address of the agents you can obtain from these commissaries) full reports of their present and contemplated operations, the prices they are paying, quantity, and description of the supplies being obtained, and the promise for the future. As soon as you can get this system inaugurated you will require from each chief district commissary or agent (who will require the same from their sub-commissaries and agents) a report of supplies on hand every ten days, with probable future accumulations and issues. These reports when received (and they must be required by you promptly, beginning on the last day of the earliest calendar month at which circumstances will permit you to require them) you will consolidate and send to Maj. 8S. B. French, commissary of subsistence, Richmond, Va., with the utmost dispatch. You will also report the places in your State deemed by you most suitable for main depots, or rather reservoirs, to and from which supplies may be’ best collected and distributed. It may be well also to have auxiliary depots to these reservoirs, both in the collection and distribution. These selections must be made with due regard both to safety of posi. tion and convenience in relation to transportation. It must ever be remembered that transportation should be husbanded in every manner possible, and therefore that under no circumstances which care, prudence, and foresight can provide against must supplies be twice transported over the same road, nor any article of subsistence transported in opposing directions. When this system is thoroughly organized and worked there will be no portion of the Confederacy which is not thoroughly drained, and therefore wherever our armies move all thesupplies of our country will be tributary to their use; and then application will be made to prevent army commissaries from competing with this Bureau’s commissaries or agents, and the chief commissary of each army directed to supply his wants by application to such chief State commissary of this Bureau as may be indicated by the Commissary-General, giving notice of requirements ahead of his actual wants and the points at which his supplies will be needed. And whenever the commissaries in one State or district need supplies which cannot be obtained in their State or district, they will draw them from the most convenient commissaries or agents from points in other States or districts. It may very frequently occur that some articles of subsistence ought not to be purchased in some States or districts because of very high prices. Whenever this occurs the same rule will prevail. ; I

It is impossible to give in a circular all the detailed directions which might be desired; much must of necessity be left to your discretion and judgment, but enough has been said to let you understand the system that is to be inaugurated, and great reliance is placed upon your judgment and energy in establishing it at an early day.

Very respectfully,