CAMP NEAR MONTEREY, MEXICO, GENERAL: We are now diligently employed in filling up the depot with supplies for movements that may follow a decision to assume hostilities. Our train, now some three hundred and fifty strong, is constantly in motion; and we will have two thousand mules, making at least one trip. I have directed Captain Hill to send up a train of one hundred wagons as soon as possible to Matamoras, to await these movements. Our supplies are now abundant. Corn we can get here in sufficiency. HENRY WHITING, Assistant Quartermaster General. Major General THOMAS S. JEsup, Washington, D. C. CAMP NEAR MONTEREY, MEXICO, COLONEL: As soon as the armistice took place, General Taylor directed that some four or more hundred thousand rations of subsistence should be placed in deposite here. Immediate measures were taken to fulfil this order. All the pack mules remaining with the army were sent down to Camargo, and in due time brought up about eleven hundred cargoes, (about three hundred pounds each;) while the train, consisting of about one hundred and fifty wagons, (a certain number were of course necessary with the troops,) was despatched by detachments of fifty to the same place, for the same object. Captain Arnold left the Brazos with a new train of one hundred and twenty-five wagons about the 1st of October, and reached Monterey the beginning of this month. Arrangements were also made with certain persons to employ pack mules in number to bring up from Camargo two thousand cargoes. These were in readiness to go down at any time after five days' notice, but were held back until it should be known that the cargoes were likely to be in readiness for transportation. All this has been done with the knowledge and approbation of the general, and the whole means of the department have been diligently employed all the time, except as to the number of pack mules. Double the number could have been had for the same purpose, had it been deemed advisable to engage them. But, after consultation with the general and with the subsistence department, it was thought that proper stores for packing (only certain articles can be packed to advantage) could not be had for more than the two thousand. Before the last instructions from the government rendered it probable that the armistice would be suspended, General Taylor deemed it prudent to have the train greatly augmented, in anticipation of movements that would probably follow its termination. Accordingly, instructions were a once despatched to Matamoras to begin the purchase of tame mules; five hundred to be called for at once from the local authorities, as mules had previously been called for. This step was only preliminary to calls, to follow each other as fast as the animals could be obtained, to the extent of our wants. At the same time, Captain Crosman was directed to make purchases at Camargo with the same view. Captain Hill had had standing instructions to set up all the wagons the mules sent out to him would enable him to do. I make this statement in order that the department may know what has been doing to fulfil the calls of the general commanding. It must be borne in mind that the army and its followers here consume full two hundred thousand rations per month. Colonel HENRY STANTON, HENRY WHITING, Assistant Quartermaster General. Assistant Quartermaster General, U. S. A., Washington, D. C. CAMP NEAR MONTEREY, MEXICO, COLONEL: Since my last communication the means of the department have been diligently employed in placing supplies within the reach of consumption. About two thousand mules have lately brought cargoes from Camargo to this place; that is, one thousand nine hundred and twenty cargoes, weighing about three hundred pounds each, have been delivered. The aggregate has been about five hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds of subsistence; while the wagons, moving up and down, have brought about the same quantity of subsistence stores, independent of quartermasters' also brought up. We are increasing the number of wagons as fast as possible. The wagons and the harness are on hand, and the mules are at hand; but our difficulty is the want of drivers. We pay a large price for them; yet they are not to be had in sufficient numbers, and those we do get are, many of them, unsuited to our purposes, being dissipated and unstable. It is time some system were adopted which would secure to the service a corps of good drivers at a proper compensation. In Florida we paid generally twenty-five dollars per month for drivers. we pay the same here; still the department is inadequately and poorly provided in this respect. Details from the army are objected to, and with good reason. I see but one remedy for this evil; that is, to have one or two men added to each company of the, army, who shall be enlisted as teamsters or hostlers, always liable to be called on for service with teams or animals. Their pay should be that of artificers. When not wanted for this special service, they will be soldiers. The cost would be half that we now incur, and the efficiency and certainty would be doubled. Each regiment might have a wagon and forage master, with the pay of a quartermaster sergeant. The Rio Grande has been reduced to a narrow channel, that winds through its bed. Many of our public boats are unable to get up as high as Camargo, and Major McRee reports to me that he has had to take into service three or four of the small private boats plying the river. Colonel HENRY STANTON, HENRY WHITING, Assistant Quartermaster General. Assistant Quartermaster General, U. S. A., Washington city, D. C. CAMP NEAR VILLA GRAND, MEXICO, COLONEL: We find corn enough on the route for our animals, and some fodder; but we lose many from a dysentery that prevails among them, and carries them off in small numbers every day, in a few hours. The places of the mules, however, are easily and cheaply supplied on the route. Proper horses for the batteries are not to be had, nor for the dragoons. Many of the latter, notwithstanding all our exertions to keep up the supply, are on foot. HENRY WHITING, Assistant Quartermaster General. Colonel HENRY STANTON, Assistant Quartermaster General, U. S. A., Washington, D. C. CAMP NEAR MONTEREY, MEXICO, November 30, 1846. GENERAL: Your letter of the 4th was received by our last express. I am glad that you are thus far, and hope you will come further; at least as far as the mouth of the river. I told General Taylor of your liberal offer to join his head-quarters, if he desired it. He seemed to appreciate the compliment, but I suppose would find it even more unpleasant than you to see his former senior subordinate to him. It would be a great relief to me to have you here, as the burden which I bear is a heavy one; but I have no fear of responsibility, and shall at all times be ready to take that share which belongs to me. I do not think the general imputes any blame to our department at Washington. He knows very well that the requisitions are made here, and not there. I infer that he regards the government as in fault in having crowded such an additional force upon him in advance of all means to use them to advantage. Thousands of troops were at the Brazos before we had the means of moving them up the river. It is true it may have . been expected they would move by land; but just at that time the water rose and flooded the country. Land movements were out of the question. And it was well known at Washington that wagons would not, and could not, be at the Brazos until about the 1st of September, and mules for them not as soon. This I understood as I passed through that city. The troops may have anticipated even the government itself. When I left Washington it did not seem to have been expected that they would move for some weeks then. Large bodies of them were off, I found, as I passed down the river. General Wool, as he passed through New Orleans, appropriated to his column such means of transportation as he deemed necessary. This may have been a matter of course. The means gathering there were for his purpose as well as General Taylor's. Still this army felt the inconvenience of the withdrawal, at the outset of its intended movements, of some two or three hundred wagons, which were on their way to the Brazos. Again, more than a thousand horses and mules which Captain Drum took to San Antonio, through some misapprehension or the want of instructions, were appropriated to that column, when they were, as I now hear from Major Thomas, intended for this. These two causes, without any other, were sufficient to embar rass the movements of General Taylor, from the beginning of his movements to the present time. General Wool has now more wagon tranportation with his column, of less than three thousand, than General Taylor has with all his forces. This is not stated as a complaint. General Wool knew that his march was to be a long land march. We have availed ourselves largely of mules; but scarcely any thing, either subsistence or quartermasters' stores, came to us in a shape for packing. A troublesome and expensive remodelling of nearly every package has to take place before it can be put upon the back of a mule. We have an abundance of wagons now at the Brazos, and are setting them up as fast as mules can be had. Colonel Hunt is shipping the latter. And we are buying largely. There is no dif ficulty in getting mules here, as I have often reported. They are small, but they are cheap. At this time we have with this army about four hundred and fifty wagons. One thousand would not be too many for present purposes. We have great difficulty in getting and keeping drivers. The present system should be changed. I propose that one man, or two at most, be enlisted, as a part of each company in service, to serve as drivers or hostlers when needed. They could have the pay of artificers. This would save one-half of the expense and double the efficiency. They would be at hand and under control. Whether each regiment should have in addition a principal teamster, with the pay of quartermaster sergeant, might also be considered. I have not hesitated to make use of the new appointments in all ways, and have found many of them useful and apt. A captain is now serving as quartermaster of General Twigg's division. I have lately given another charge of the quartermaster's department at Point Isabel. They have charge of trains, and one is now going down to look into the clothing depots-Captain O'Hara. I have had so few regular quartermasters, I could not have got along without these volunteers. Whether the depots ought to have been at the mouth of the river instead of the Brazos, may be a question. I was there but for a very short time, and have not been able to revisit it. One important fact is in favor of the Brazos. Loaded vessels, such as come from any part of the United States, can get in there, and I think (and Captain Hill thinks, I believe,) that none others should be sent there. The freight might be doubled, perhaps; still a saving would be made in the end. Such a course would save much of the lightering. Troops then only would come in large vessels. They are easily got off. Our supplies are now ample in all articles, so far as I know. I must bear witness to the readiness with which Colonel Hunt has aided me in all my calls; also to the industry and activity of all the assistants who have had charge of depots. They have all had hard, very hard duties to perform. When they had the choice, I had reason to fear they would all leave me. I was surprised they did not, though much pleased. Captain Sibley was the only assistant I could bring into the field. Captain Montgomery joined me some time after the capture of this place, and has been sick nearly ever since. Captain Arnold joined me, with a new train, the 2d instant; he is now at Saltillo. Captain Myers I have directed to report to General Patterson; also Major McRee, when General P. moves. I trust you will excuse me if I do not undertake to make the report of the operations of the department here since I have had the charge of it, while I am under my present burden of duties. The letters I have written to you from time to time being much in detail in this respect, would probably be the best report I could make. I will have them copied and sent to you, if you deem it necessary. Very respectfully, I am, general, your obedient servant, HENRY WHITING, Colonel and Assistant Quartermaster General. Major General THOS. S. JESUp, Quartermaster General, U. S. A., New Orleans, La. CAMP NEAR MONTEREY, MEXICO, GENERAL: I have received your letter of the 17th ult. Almost from the first of my coming into this country I have felt almost certain that we could obtain here all the mules we want, whether for harness or for packing, and consequently have not recommended the purchase of any in the States. But most if not all of those you had purchased there were probably purchased before this fact could be known; and my object has been to procure only the number that should be necessary, in addition to those coming in. We have |