MERIDIAN, MISS.,

September 22, 1863.

[General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General:]

Does the War Department intend that I shall have any control over the purchasing quartermaster in Alabama and Mississippi?

J. E. JOHNSTON,

[Indorsement]

SEPTEMBER 24, 1863.

Respectfully referred to the Quartermaster-General for his views.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

September 25, 1863.

Respectfully returned to Adjutant and Inspector General with a copy of the circular letter of March 24, by which this department must be governed unless the War Department enlarge the powers of General Johnston.

By order, in illness of Quartermaster-General:

W. F. ALEXANDER,

Major and Assistant to the Quartermaster-General.

[Memorandum in pencil.]

General COOPER:

The only control over these officers is to make requisitions upon them and to require reports from them at any time.

[Inclosure.]

CIRCULAR.] QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Richmond, March 24, 1863.

To avoid conflict and competition between the officers of this department and those of the Ordnance Bureau or Commissary Department in the purchase of supplies common to both, quartermasters are especially directed to observe the following regulations:

First. The following-named States will constitute separate purchasing districts, and the officers herein designated will have respectively in each the exclusive control, in person or through subordinates, of all purchases of supplies needed by this department:

Virginia: Lieutenant Colonel L. Smith, Richmond.

North Carolina: Major W. W. Peirce, Raleigh.

South Carolina: Major Hutson Lee, Charleston.

Georgia: Major J. T. Winnemore, Augusta.

Alabama: Major J. L. Calhoun, Montgomery.

Mississippi: Major L. Mims, Jackson.

Florida: Major H. R. Teasdale, Lake City.

Louisiana: Major G. W. Grice, Alexandria.

Texas: Major T. A. Washington, San Antonio.

Arkansas and Missouri: Major L. B. Burton, Little Rock.

Tennessee and Kentucky: Major James Glover, Knoxville.

Second. It shall be the duty of these principal purchasing officers to establish and from time to time regulate prices at which army supplies are to be bought, and to confer with each other, so as to secure as far as practicable uniformity therein, making due allow-