smaller depots, which are in immediate proximity to an army by general supply trains.

The headquarters trains and regimental trains, however, can be regulated. Their duty is to transport such baggage and supplies as should be always with the army. These trains have generally in our Army been larger than necessary, and, by their magnitude, have offered temptations to officers and men to carry with them useless baggage. The armies have thus been encumbered in their movements, and military operations have been less successful than if our armies had been less profusely equipped.

The losses of wagon trains and of horses and mussels have been very great. Large trains are difficult to guard. Portions of them are cut off by partisans or abandoned upon every rapid retreat.

The marches of General McClellan from Harrison's Landing to Fort Monroe and from Washington to Antietam were made with reduced trains. The march of General Buell from Nashville to Louisville, I have no doubt, from its rapidity, was made without a heavy baggage train, though I have not yet seen official reports. he had when he left Corinth to move eastward a very large train.

General Morgan is reported to have marched lately from Chamberland Gap to Greenupsburg.

These rapid marches in light marching order have had important results. The march to Fort Monroe enabled the Army of the Potomac to reach Washington in time to save it. The march to Frederick, nd thence to Antietam, drove the rebel army out of Maryland. The march from Chattanooga, by Nashville to Louisville, saved Louisville and if followed up in light marching order will result in the recovery of Kentucky and Tennessee. The march from Chamberland Gap to Greenupsburg saved General Morgan's 10,000 men. When compared in their results with the slow movements of some of our armies, while encumbered with enormous trains, they show very plainly the importance of reducing the wagon trains as much as possible. I submit hf General Orders, Numbers 130, 14th of September, 1862, from Major-General Halleck, commander-in-chief.*

Numbers 5, 1st of September, 1862, from Major-General Wright, commanding Department of the Ohio.+

Numbers 46, A, 27th of September, 1862, from Major-General Buell, commanding Army of the Ohio,++ and

Numbers 153, 10th of August, 1862, from Major-General McClellan, commanding the Army of the Potomac.#

All these are intended to correct the evils of excessive baggage and baggage trains, and I inclose a scale of allowances for headquarters, regimental, and battery or squadron baggage trains, with some regulations in regard to the use of the trains, which I respectfully submit for your consideration and that of the General-in-Chief, recommending that, if approved, it shall be issued in general orders to the Army and established as a regulation.// It is taken, with little change, from the order of General McClellan, under which his most successful movements have been made.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

M. C. MEIGS,

Quartermaster-General.

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*See p. 544.

+Omitted.

++See Series I, Vol. XVI, Part II, p. 552.

#See Series I, Vol. XI, Part III, p. 365.

//See General Orders, Numbers 160, October 18, p. 671.

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