expenditures in this department are not arrested by a stronger arm than mine, the quartermaster's department will be wrecked in Missouri alone." I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, ROB'T ALLEN, Major and Quartermaster. General LORENZO THOMAS, Adjutant General United States Army. JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI, October 11, 1861. GENERAL: In June, 1855, I left St. Louis with seven steamboats, with stores and troops for the Upper Missouri river. I remained there on duty until 1857. I joined General Johnston, and went to Utah. I returned from Utah last winter, on the first and only leave of absence I have had in twelve years. While on my way to Washington, in April, I stopped at Harrisburg; and, at the request of Governor Curtin, I remained there to assist in organizing the troops there assembling into camps, and to put their commissariat into order. From there I was on duty constantly, day and night, at various posts-York, Cockeysville, Baltimore, Perrysville, and Annapolis. Finally, about the 20th of July, I was ordered to report to General Frémont. I did so at New York. I was ordered on duty at St. Louis, where I resumed similar labors to those I had been at in the east, and have been on my feet night and day since. A few days ago I received orders to report at this place for duty in the field. I left all my public accounts open, in an incomplete and exposed condition, on my office table in St. Louis, besides a vast deal of property not turned over. My health is so broken down that I am not able longer to stand up. I desire, as an act of simple justice to me, I be allowed to resume the leave of absence I surrendered in April, (it would have expired 15th June,) or else that I be ordered permanently to a post where I can get some rest, and be able to make up and forward to the Treasury Department my public accounts. Your early reply to this is respectfully requested. Respectfully, General L. THOMAS, P. T. TURNLEY, Assistant Quartermaster. Adjutant General United States. NOTE. My unsettled and unadjusted accounts will reach over one million and a half dollars. [Paper No. 11.} HEADQUARTERS 1ST DIVISION, WESTERN DEPARTMENT, Tipton, Missouri, October 12, 1861. COLONEL: I have received the general's order directing my division to move in the morning. Not one-half of my division has yet reported. Colonel Ellis's cavalry are without ammunition, cartridge-boxes, swords, pistols, and great coats, and many of them are greatly in want of clothing. The men of the Indiana batteries are in want of great coats, clothing, and ammunition. Requisitions have been sent in for ambulances, but they have not been furnished. Some of our mules are unshod, and we shall have them lame and unservicable, unless we can be furnished with portable forges and blacksmith's tools. About fifty tents are needed for the division. As we shall have to send our teams back for provisions after four days' march, we should not leave here with less than sixty thousand rations, as we cannot calculate on their return in less than fifteen days to our camp, even if we should remain stationary at the end of our four days' march. The cavalry regiment has not a wagon; and Colonel Palmer's and Colonel Bland's have neither of them sufficient for their baggage. To enable us to move efficiently we need at least one hundred wagons, and the ambulances already ordered to be supplied to the division by the general commanding. I have the honor to be, very respectfully your obedient servant. Colonel J. H. EATON, D. HUNTER, Major General Commanding. Acting Assistant Adjutant General, [Paper No. 12.] HEADQUARTERS WESTERN DEPARTMENT, Camp Asboth near Tipton, Missouri, October 12, 1861. GENERAL: In complying with the letter of instructions of yesterday, General Frémont directs that you proceed from Tipton for the present, only so far as the first convenient camp ground, for the purpose of bringing your immediate command together and to enable you to organize the better, your means of transportation. Colonel Woods, director of transportation, will confer with you to supply, at the earliest moment practicable, what is deficient. At a distance of two, three, or five miles, your wagons can return to Tipton for what is needed. Respectfully, your obedient servant, Major General D. HUNTER, J. H. EATON, A. A. A. G. Commanding 1st division, Tipton, Missouri. [Paper No. 7.] JEFFERSON CITY, October 13, 1861. GENERAL: On the 25th September ultimo, I opened the bids, in my office at St. Louis, made under General Meigs's advertisement for furnishing grain and hay. I made contracts in accordance therewith, and gave notice to contractors of the amount I supposed would be required weekly. A day or two after, another party (a Mr. Baird or Baird & Palmer) in St. Louis informed me they had received an order (pcr telegraph) from Colonel Woods, or General McKinstry, then at Jefferson City with headquarters, to forward as fast a possible to Jefferson City, one hundred thousand bushels of oats, and a like or corresponding amount of hay. The contractors under advertisement objected to this order, because they said Baird got 33 cents for grain, and $19 per ton for hay, while contractors got 28 cents for corn, 30 cents for oats, and $17 95 per ton for hay. I then told contractors they need not send any forage up the river; or if they did they would be paid the same that Bird was. About 29th or 30th September, after the headquarters, western department, had left St. Louis, (I being left there highest in rank in my department but no orders or instructions except the single remark of General Frémont that he wished no delay or obstacle whatever in the forwarding of supplies, &c.,) I was daily and almost hourly called upon by different persons and asked to have their mules inspected. All stated they were turning in mules on Mr. Haskell's account. I called for the contract or order under which Haskell furnished them, but never received any until I received a line from General McKinstry, quartermaster, stating that General Frémont desired me to inspect and receive Mr. Haskell's mules as rapidly as possible. I re ceived mules from Mr. Haskell only as they were required to ship off for field service. I received some from other parties in like manner. I have good grounds for believing that in not receiving all Mr. Haskell's mules, I gave much offence to him and to his friends. But I believed then, and do yet, that my action was for the best interest of the government. P. T. TURNLEY, Respectfully, Assistant Quartermaster. General L. THOMAS, Adjutant General United States. Springfield, the strategical point of that wide elevation which separates the waters of the Osage from those of the Arkansas river, is the key to the whole southwestern part of Missouri, commanding an area of nearly 60,000 square miles. Around it is clustered a true and loyal population, large numbers of whom, driven from their homes and firesides, and burning with a desire to revenge their sufferings and recapture their homesteads, are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to join an advancing army. Not only, therefore, military strategy, but a wise and humane policy, demands the reoccupation of that place. To effect this in the shortest and speediest way, a combined movement of our troops should be made from Rolla and Jefferson City. The column from the latter place, moving first, will cross, after two days' marching, the Osage river at Tuscumbia. To prevent delay in crossing, anchors, ropes, pulleys, and other portable necessaries for the construction of raft bridges, should be taken along from Jefferson City. Upon an appointed day after the passage of the river has been accomplished, the column from Rolla will commence its march, and that place and Tuscumbia being each about one hundred miles from Springfield, in six days the two forces will be able to unite at their destination. As the lines of march converge upon their approach to Springfield, it will be practicable at Lebanon and Cross Blain (ten miles north of Buffalo) to open communication between the columns. Strong scouting parties will best effect this object, and each body will thus support and assist the other. The Cole county home guards should occupy Tuscumbia. After the column from Jefferson City had passed that place, a reserve should be left at Linn Creek to cover the rear provision train, while Warsaw, the most important point on the Osage, should be immediately occupied by the home guards of Johnson, Pettis and Benton county, re-enforced by a volunteer regiment and two pieces of artillery. Rolla, Wanesville, and Lebanon can be occupied upon the withdrawal of the other troops, by regiments of the United States reserve corps from St. Louis, while Jefferson City can be placed in charge of an adequate force of General Sigel's brigade, now under re-organization. To co-operate with this combined movement, General Lane will be directed to march from Fort Scott, in Kansas, to Springfield, by way of Lamar and Greenville, re-enforced if possible. The successful execution of this plan puts us in possession of the entire Couthwesten portion of this State, forces the enemy to retire into Arkansas, and enables us, immediately after the concentration at Springfield, to assume the offensive against that State. The exhausted condition of the country through which our troops are to pass, renders necessary the most particular attention to the organization and protection of the provision trains; the commencement of cool weather demands additional clothing for the men, and the sad experience of the past warns us to make every necessary preparation to meet their wants. [Paper No. 14.] In camp at Nolin river and on the Louisville and Nashville railroad at various points. 6th Indiana, Colonel Crittenden, Nolin river. 29th Indiana, Colonel Miller, Nolin river. 3d Kentucky, Colonel Rousseau, Nolin river. 4th Kentucky, (cavalry,) Colonel Board, Nolin river. Stone's Kentucky light battery, four pieces, Nolin river. Cotter's (Ohio) six rifled pieces will be in camp in two or three days at Nolin river. At Camp Dick Robinson, or acting in conjunction with General Thomas's command. Two Tennessee regiments, nearly full and nearly ready for service. Four Kentucky regiments, in same condition as Tennessee regiments; one regiment cavalry. 14th Ohio, Colonel Stedman, Nicholasville. 37th Ohio, Colonel Connell, Nicholasville. 33d Indiana, Colonel Coburne, Camp Dick Robinson. 38th and 35th Ohio, Camp Robinson. Three batteries of artillery, Ohio. Four Ohio regiments on line of Covington and Lexington railroad, acting with General Thomas. 37th Indiana, Colonel Crufts, Owensboro'. Also, three or four Kentucky regiments at Owensboro', under General Crittenden, not full nor ready for the field, but probably 1,500 men could turn out under arms. 6. Brigadier General Sturgis is hereby directed to muster out of service, to-morrow, the squadron of cavalry known as the Frémont Body-Guard. The chief quartermaster and ordnance officer will direct proper officers to receive and receipt for all property belonging to their respective departments now in possession of the commander of the squadron. |