OR, Series 4, Vol. 2, Page 968

{Subsistence Bureau}
November 20, 1863
 
Report on subsistence
   On the 18th of November, 1862, a report was submitted to the Secretary of War. This report, which embodied a comparative view of commissary supplies and resources, is added at foot of this report. A statement similar to that, as far as it can be made so from materials in this Bureau, is now submitted, as also some remarks on the present and prospective supply of breadstuffs.
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   Whether or not there is wheat enough in the Confederacy to bread our armies and our whole people is not known to this Bureau, but it believes there is more than enough of corn to make up any deficiency in this respect; that, however, is not found in due proportion in Virginia, but is widely distributed over large and distant areas, and if delivered at all must be hauled from farther south on railroads. But the present railroad transportation is inadequate for the purpose. It is reported by Major Carrington, quartermaster, that he will want for General Lee's army alone 1,500,000 bushels of corn {requiring 10,000 cars in roughly 700 trains} above what he ascertains to be the surplus of Virginia. This Bureau estimates its wants for the same purpose at 250,000 bushels. The single track from Weldon {the Petersburg RR}, even if undisturbed by the enemy, cannot transport it in addition to its other necessary carriage. If the railroad were completed from Greensborough to Danville {the Piedmont RR} it might be done without difficulty, and the president of the road, who has been asked to give an opinion on the subject, says that the connection can be made in three months' time if the Government will put an adequate force on the road, counting the time from the commencement of work by that force.
   This difficulty of transportation has been seen from the beginning of the war, and the Bureau has made constant representations of the fact.
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L. B. Northrop
Commissary-General of Subsistence

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