S. P. Moore to Alexander R. Lawton, November 14, 1868

Brig. Gen. A. R. LAWTON, Quartermaster-General :

GENERAL: I desire to inform you that in the prompt establishment of hospitals in the rear of armies, and in their removal from point to point, as necessitated by the contingencies of the movements in the field, as also especially in the transportation of the sick and wounded, the Medical Department is much embarrassed by the present organization of the Quartermaster’s Department, and by the lack of funds in the hands of the respective quartermasters at the points where these accommodations of the sick are to be improvised. When such arrangements exist as at present in the Army of Tennessee, where these quartermasters are required to consult the chief quartermaster of General Bragg’s army, and to procure their funds and special authority from him, the embarrassment is still greater, as particularly shown by the reports concerning the provisions made for the wounded after the battle of Chickamauga. The duties and responsibilities of the chief quartermaster of that and other of our armies, especially when such armies are actively operating against the enemy, are so great that it is impossible for him to give that attention to the wants of the hospitals being organized, and to the transportation of the wounded which the existing circumstances require. Communication, too, with his subordinates, and with the medical director of the hospitals in the rear being cut off, or rendered difficult and irregular, it is impossible that the requisite arrangements can be properly effected. In view, then, of the inconvenience and injury to the service which have resulted from this imperfect arrangement, it is urgently recommended that a special quartermaster, independent of the authority of the chief quartermaster in the field, to receive his funds directly from headquarters at Richmond, to be assigned to the performance of such duties of the Quartermaster’s Department as relate to the organization of hospitals, and the transportation of the sick and wounded for hospitals organized and to be organized, or transferred in the rear of the several armies of the Confederacy now in the field.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,