got arms enough for that regiment at Harrisburg? If you have not, will you have them sent to Harrisburg, or would it be better to send them to Philadelphia?

EDWIM M. STANTON.

HARRISBURG, PA., November 4, 1862.

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

The regiment from Wilkesbarre will be ordered to this place. There are no arms here other than State arms, and a full supply for a regiment should be sent. If I can know about the date the arms will arrive I will so time the movements that no delay will take place here. The drafted men of Camp Curtin are getting better satisfied since they know I will assign [them] as far as possible to regiments raised in their own towns and counties, and will assign entire companies to regiments where by recent consolidation additional ones are now required. Officers are arriving from the Army of the Potomac to take charge of the drafted men.

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF SUBSISTENCE,

Washington City, November 5, 1862.

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of this department for the past year:

The Army throughout our extensive territory has been supplied with good and wholesome subsistence, generally by advertisement for bids in the cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Louisville, Baltimore, Saint Louis, and San Francisco.

Fresh beef has generally been supplied to our armies in the field, on the hoof, and in larger proportion of the ration to marching columns, to lessen, as far as possible, the quantity of transportation required. The troops on the coast of the Carolinas and at the Gulf posts, including New Orleans, have received their fresh beef by shipment from New York. It is hoped that during the coming year it may be procured from Texas.

In addition to the troops, subsistence has been furnished to all political prisoners and prisoners of war, to a large number of contrabands, and to the suffering Union inhabitants found in the march of our armies in the Confederate States.

In raising so large a force of volunteers and putting them in the field much irregularity in this department has doubtless occurred, but less, it is believed, than was reasonably to have been expected under the circumstances.

Great inaccuracy exists in the accounts rendered by volunteer officers, and great delay in rendering them prevails.

The act of Congress requiring all officers of this department to render their accounts to the Third Auditor of the Treasury monthly, it is believed, has greatly increased the irregularity in rendering the accounts by increasing the labor of the officers at a time when their every faculty is required for their duties in the field.