because they had been collected and were destined for General Bragg's army. For it is plain from the letter herewith of Major Allen to Major Locke, dated December 21, 1863, that this same "fine stall-fed beef" was destined for Savannah,and was only definitely ordered to General Bragg's army when urgently asked for to feed a brigade of Georgia troops in South Carolina. I admit it is impolitic, as a rule, to make special issues of particular supplies to particular brigades, but the fact is that only in this way have certain material parts of the ration been procured much of the time for certain parts of my command in South Carolina. Major Guerin has been forced, by the confessed inadequacy of his own means of supply, to sanction and request resort more than once to the measures, and the collection by brigade and other army commissaries in particular districts for their respective commands. Next in order of date is your telegram of the 1st instant, calling for description of the "recent and signal instance of conflict of authority" referred to in my letter to you from Savannah, of the 25th ultimo, and the name of the officer who gave the order which conflicted. From the foregoing it will be perceived that I had in view the order of Major Locke to Major Allen, of the 4th of January, directing him to disobey my orders of the 2nd of the same month. All papers* necessary for a proper understanding of the matters involved are herewith, to wit:

First. A copy, marked A, of paragraph VII, Special Orders, No. 2, series 1864, from these headquarters, as returned here in possession of Major Morgan, indorsed by Major Allen, with Major Locke's instructions to disobey it,and Major Allen's declaration of his disobedience.

Second. A copy, marked B, of a letter from Major Allen to Major Locke, dated December 21, 1863, showing conclusively that the meat in question was not collected expressly for the troops under General Johnston, as alleged by Colonel Northrop, and would have been sent to Savannah but for the appearance and requisition of Major Morgan.

Third. A copy, marked C, of a letter recently written by Major Guerin (24th January) to these headquarters, communicating certain views of the Bureau of Subsistence, which expressly admit that all officers of the Subsistence Department serving under the orders of the chief commissary of a State must be placed on duty by the department commander in a department order, at the solicitation of the chief of subsistence of the State in which said officer, of the class of Major Allen, shall be assigned for service. In which connection I have simply to remark, it must surely be a novelty in military administration which would make it essential for me to issue an order placing an officer on duty within the limits of my department before he could enter on that duty, and that once having been so ordered by me, he is thenceforward so far independent of my command as to be able to disobey my orders, with circumstances of aggravated defiance, as in the case under notice, to wit, an indorsement on my order of such a character as that on the paper herewith, marked A.

Fourth. Copy,marked D, of a letter from Major Guerin, chief commissary State of South Carolina, to post commissary, Macon, written in view of a provision of the circular of the Bureau of Subsistence,

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*Omitted.

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