allowed to the various work shops on which it depends, without interruption, if the privilege of detailing contractors under certain circumstances be continued, and the necessary funds are promptly furnished. Without these this department is powerless, and the want of them is fast paralyzing its efforts.
Your obedient servant,
(Signed)A. R. Lawton,
Quartermaster-General.
Richmond, February 1st, 1865.
General Lawton, Quartermaster-General:
Sir— The urgent request of General Lee, made to me in person, and that of his Chief Quartermaster, to be prepared to equip his artillery and transportation with horses, added to the calls made upon me for the same supplies for armies South, induces me to address you this communication, in which I desire to recapitulate what I have before at different times, in writing and verbally, had the honor to submit to you, on the subject of the number of animals needed to equip our armies for the spring campaign, and the source from which such supplies are to be obtained.
As the officer charged with the providing of horses and mules for the armies of the Confederate States, I feel it to be due to myself for the record to show, that I have taken all necessary steps to a proper discharge of my duty, to ascertain the resources of the country, and to suggest plans by which deficiencies may be supplied, and that, should the demand made on me not be met, and any damage result from such failure, I may be exculpated from blame, by reference to my official communications.
The inability of the Confederate States east of the Mississippi to sustain the draft which would be made for horses and mules for the coming campaign, was discussed and announced by me in May last, when I was procuring such supplies for General Johnston's army. The number estimated by me at that time to be necessary must be largely increased, by reason of the losses sustained in General Hood's campaign in Tennessee.
In May last I dispatched an officer to General E. K. Smith, Commanding Department of the Trans-Mississippi, with letters to him announcing our necessities, and urging him to send us a portion of the animals which he was reported to have captured from the Federal army, and asking that funds might be furnished, and permission granted to my officer, charged with the business, to go into Mexico, and procure animals, to be sent over this side. In both I was disappointed, and in August following I suggested the plan, since adopted and sought to be executed, of procuring a large number of animals from Mexico. Owing to the delays in procuring the funds, and from the fact that no one has yet been selected to proceed to Texas in charge of the operations to be undertaken, we
