Ss. P. Moore to L. B. Northrop, November 14, 1863

Col. L. B. NORTHROP, Commissary-General, Richmond:

COLONEL: 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, the Medical Department is much embarrassed by the present system of organization of the Commissary Department. When such arrangements exist as at present in the Army of Tennessee, where these, the post commissaries, are required to consult the chief commissary of General Bragg’s army and to procure 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 commissary 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 or removed from point to point which the existing circumstances require. Communication, too, with his subordinates and with the medical director of 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 of the service which have resulted from this imperfect arrangement, it is urgently reeommended that a special commissary, independent of the authority of the chief commissary in the field, to receive authority directly from headquarters at Richmond, be assigned to the performance of such duties of the Commissary Department as relate to the supply of commissary stores to the sick and wounded, and to 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,