No. 39 Findings of a Court of Inquiry upon the conduct of the Quartermaster's Department of the Confederate Army of the Mississippi.

GENERAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE,

No. 81.
Richmond, Va., June 11, 1863.

I. A court of inquiry having been convened by direction of the President, on the application of Lieutenant. Col. Eugene E. McLean, assistant quartermaster-general, under Special Orders, No. 282, paragraph XV, of 1862, to examine into and report upon the conduct of the quartermaster's department of the Army of the Mississippi while under the control of Lieutenant-Colonel (then Major) McLean, and having made the required examination and report, the result is, by direction of the President, published for the information of all concerned.

II. The court having maturely considered the evidence adduced,

report as the

SUMMARY OF FACTS,

regarded by the court of inquiry in the case of Lieutenant. Col. E. E. McLean as proved by the evidence elicited and of record-

1. That the Army of the Mississippi, as command by General Braxton Bragg, was an organization separate and distinct from the Army of the West, commanded by Major-General Earl Van Dorn; both these armies, when concentrated at Corinth and Tupelo, being under General Beauregard as commander of the forces.

2. That the Army of the Mississippi was composed of three army corps, commanded, respectively, by Generals Bragg, Polk, and Hardee, and of a Reserve Corps, commanded by General Breckinridge.

3. That the evacuation of Corinth by the Confederate forces under General Beauregard was first fixed for May 28, 1862.

4. That the evacuation of Corinth was postponed to May 29, 1862.

5. That the evacuation of Corinth was accomplished during the night of May 29 and morning of May 30, 1862.

6. That General Bragg relieved General Beauregard in the command of the forces at Tupelo in the latter part of June, 1862.

7. That Lieutenant-Colonel (then Major) McLean was acting as chief quartermaster of the Army of the Mississippi about March 12, 1862.

8. That Major McLean was appointed chief quartermaster of the Army of the Mississippi by General A. Sidney Johnston on March 30, 1862.

9. That Lieutenant-Colonel McLean was relieved from duty as chief quartermaster of the forces by General Bragg on July 4, 1862, at Tupelo, Miss.

10. That the Army of the Mississippi, while Lieutenant-Colonel McLean was its chief quartermaster, both at Corinth and Tupelo, was amply supplied with money, clothing, camp and garrison equipage, wagons, public animals, field transportation in general, and with all quartermaster's stores, with the exception of full rations of forage at Corinth and of certain other articles, which were applied for and subsequently obtained by the quartermaster's department of the parties requiring them at the time.

11. That there were throughout the army occasional complaints of the want, for a short time, of certain quartermaster's supplies, which the evidence shows were sufficiently accounted for, or promptly supplied,