Want of subsistence for the troops

Friday, March 8, 2013

During the Civil War the Commissary Department was responsible for the procurement of food stuffs for the army and the Quartermaster Department was responsible for the transportation of same. In the trans-Mississippi there was often a shortage of subsistence (food) or wagons and/or mules to transport the critical rations to the troops. In the spring of 1863 there was a critical shortage of wagons and mules in Fort Scott that prevented the shipment of subsistence to the command of Col. William A. Phillips that was located near Maysville, Ark. This shortage of rations, or subsistence, required the troops to be placed on reduced rations until a sufficient supply could be provided. All of this is described in the following letter that is located in Vol. 22, Part II, Correspondence of the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion on Pages 147 and 148. "Headquarters District of Kansas,

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