ANDERSON, October 10, 1864.

Brigadier General W. R. BOGGS,

Chief of Staff:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication on the subject of General Orders, Numbers 2, from these headquarters, informing me that it is contrary to the orders from the War Department, and also to the orders issued from the headquarters of the Department Trans-Mississippi, and must consequently be revoked. In reply I beg leave to state that the order was issued after mature reflection, and was founded upon "justice, equity, and necessity," and if it is revoked the condition of things in this district is such that officers of the army will be forced to resign and seek some employment that will give them bread for their families, or, remaining in the service, to resort to fraudulent practices. You will see that there is no other alternative when you are informed that in more than one-half of the State Confederate money is not taken at all, and when it is received it is at the ruinous discount of 50 for 1, or 2 cents on the dollar. The price of everything being regulated upon a specie basis, if an officer is forced to provide subsistence for his family by outside purchase, 100 pounds of flour costs him $300, a bushel of meal from $50 to $60, and every other article of living at the same ratio. Thus the pay of a captain, for instance, for one month will be required to purchase only fifty pounds of flour or three bushels of corn meal. The Government loses nothing by the permission to purchase from the subsistence department, since the officer pays back what the article cost. The army is not deprived of subsistence necessary to its support, since the country is overflowing with abundance, and I can see no good reason in denying the privilege granted under General Orders, Numbers 2. The stringency of the orders alluded to by you from the War Department arose, as must be apparent to every one, from the scarcity of provisions in the States east of the Mississippi, and particularly around Richmond, where the necessity for economy was more pressing, but I can see nothing but injustice in the application of the rule to this State, which has produced this year more than three times as much as its inhabitants and the army together can consume. If the Government had it in its power to pay what the law promises to pay the officer for his services there would be no necessity for any such measure as provided for in General Orders, Numbers 2, for he could then take his pay and go into the market and purchase bread for his family at more reasonable prices than he now pays the Government. But the Government fails in its obligations, and instead of giving the officer what the law promises, gives him in reality just one fiftieth of the amount, and then refuses out of an overflowing abundance to allow him the privilege of purchasing in the only market where the money he has received for his services can be made available to provide bread for his family.

Since I have shown, I think, that the provisions of General Orders, Numbers 2, are not prejudicial to the army or fraudful to the public treasury, I cannot too strongly urge upon the general commanding the necessity of some such measure as I have adopted by which officers may be enabled to live honestly upon their pay and not be forced either to peculate upon the Government or seek in civil employment the means of subsisting their families. As another branch of the same subject I would call your attention to the recent orders from Richmond and Shreveport on the subject of commutation of officers' quarters. The price fixed for the headquarters of this district, $30 per room, is wholly inadequate.