entirely covered. I should be pleased to have your influence used to promote this end.

Lieutenant-Colonel Lovell, acting assistant provost-marshal- general, will give you any particulars you may desire as to the quotas of particular districts, &c., and if a military force is necessary in making the draft I request that you will provide it.

Lieutenant-colonel Lovell has been assigned to duty as superintendent of volunteer recruiting service, and, with a view to facilitating the business and acting in conjunction with the Governor, he has been ordered to take post at Madison.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. B. FRY,

Provost-Marshal-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. U. S. QUARTERMASTER'S DEPT., No. 21.
Chattanooga, October 8, 1863.

I. The duties of the chief quartermaster of an army consisting of several corps, divisions, or other organizations embrace all that is necessary for the regulation and control of operations of the quartermaster's department in the army to which he is attached.

When an army corps is so far detached as to be without the limits of communication with the headquarters of the army of which it forms a part, or where an army corps is an independent command, the duties of the chief quartermaster of the corps are the same as those of the chief quartermaster of an army.

In the absence of the chief quartermaster from headquarters for any length of time, his duties at headquarters will be assumed and performed by the senior officer of the Quartermaster's Department present with the army.

The chief quartermaster of an army should require from all the officers of his department serving under his direction reports of the condition of the property in their charge at such times as he may think necessary.

Regular reports should be made on the last day of each month, and generally it will be well to require them also on the 15th day of each month.

These monthly and semi-monthly reports should specify the number and condition of all wagons, animals, and other means of transportation; of all cavalry and artillery horses for which the quartermaster is expected to provide forage.

They should state the condition of the clothing of the troops in each regiment, and the number of articles of clothing, and the quantity of other supplies needed to complete the equipment of the men, of the animals, and of the wagons, according to the regulations and general orders in force at the time.

In the Army of the Cumberland a very thorough system of semi- monthly inspection is carried out by the inspector-general, and the information as to the wants of the troops obtained by these inspections is communicated to the chief quartermaster by the inspector-general.

This should be used in correcting the reports received from the various subordinate quartermasters.

These reports should be made by regimental quartermasters and by acting assistant and assistant quartermasters to their next superiors in regular order.