17. Officers of the Quarter-master's Department, will not be allowed to engage, directly or indirectly, in trade or traffic of any description. 18. Regimental and battalion quarter-masters and military storekeepers, may be required to perform the duties of assistant deputy quarter-masters general, at their respective posts or stations. 19. All monies for the service of the Quarter-master's Department, will be furnished on requisitions of the quartermaster General, predicated on the estimates of the several quarter-masters, agents, and disbursing officers. The senior quarter-master of each military department, may be required to receive and distribute all monies necessary for the use of his department. 20. All officers and agents of the Quarter-master's Department, and commanding officers of posts where there are no quarter-masters, will keep and render their accounts, both of money and property, according to prescribed forms; and each officer and agent, of the department, shall forward his accounts to the office of the Quarter-master General, within twenty days after the expiration of the quarter. It shall be the duty of the Quarter-master General to examine and transmit them with his remarks, to the proper accounting office of the Treasury Department. On report being made to the Quarter-master General, of any voucher being disallowed or suspended, he shall require from the officer or agent, proper vouchers, or the necessary explanation. 21. Any officer or agent of the Quarter-master's Department, who shall fail to forward his accounts for settlement at the time prescribed, shall be recalled, and his place be supplied by another. 22. The Quarter-master General may, whenever he shall deem it necessary, cause a thorough inspection to be made of the books and accounts of the quarter-masters, and of all officers and agents making disbursements on account of the Department. This inspection shall embrace property, as well as money, shall extend to contracts, to prices paid for articles purchased, prices paid for transportation, and generally, to every article of supply, and to all objects connected with the department. The books and accounts of the Quarter-master General, will be subject to a similar inspection. Inspecting officers will notice in their reports all orders o commanding officers requiring the expenditure of money contrary to the regulations, and they will state particularly, whether supplies are forwarded promptly. 23. Generals, and other officers, are prohibited from appointing officers or agents, to make disbursements on account of the Quarter-master's Department, except on the most urgent occasions, when they will immediately report the necessity for such appointment to the Department of War. The general, or officer making appointments of this nature, shall, in all cases, receive the funds which are to be placed in the hands of the officer or agent, and shall himself be held individually responsible for the proper application of the same. 24. Quarter-masters will not be required to make purchases of medicines and hospital stores, except in cases where an extra supply may be found necessary by the marching of a detachment, the arrival of a greater number of men at a post than had been estimated for, the loss or miscarriage of any. article, or unusual expenditure from sickly seasons, &c. In these cases only, they are authorised to purchase and issue on the requisition of the attending surgeon, countersigned by the commanding officer of the department, post, regiment or detachment. 25. It shall be the duty of the officers of the Quarter-master's department, to provide cooking utensils, and other articles of hospital furniture, when they cannot be conveniently obtained from the purchasing department. Their vouchers for such supplies will be the requisition of the attending surgeon, countersigned by the commanding officer of the regi ment, post or department. 26. Quarter-masters will not be required to make payments to citizen surgeons for medicines furnished, or medical services rendered, to the troops, whether in garrison, on detachment, or the recruiting service. Claims of this character must be referred to the surgeon general at Washington City. Nor will they be required, under any circumstances, to make payments for the hire of stewards, ward-masters, nurses, or attendants in hospitals. 27. Officers of the Quarter-master's department, shall not be furloughed for a longer period than twenty days, without first obtaining the sanction of the War Department, through the Quarter-master General; and in all cases where furloughs are granted to them, they are required to report the same immediately to his office. 28. Quarter-masters are prohibited making expenditures for the printing of blank forms and returns of any description, except those connected with their own accounts. 29. Whenever quarter-masters' stores become damaged, or unfit for issue, whilst in the charge of a quarter-master, he shall report the same to the commanding officer of the post or department, who shall immediately institute a board of survey, to be composed of three officers, when practicable, to examine and report on the same. They shall report particularly, the nature of the damage, the causes which led to it, and whether, in their opinion, it was produced by the neglect of the quarter-master. All stores found damaged, from causes other than the neglect of the quarter-master, shall be immediately sold at public auction, and the auctioneer's bill of sale, with a duplicate of the report of the board of survey, shall be entered in the proper abstract, and will entitle the quarter-master to a credit for the stores thus condemned and sold. But in case the board be of opinion, that the damage was occasioned by neglect on the part of the quarter-master, the stores will be thrown upon his hands and their original cost deducted in the settlement of his accounts. 30. Quarter-masters will not be required to make expenditures immediately connected with the operation of the subsistence department, except for the hire of store houses, and transportation of supplies. All stationery, scales, weights and measures, for the use of the issuing commissaries; and all other expenditures, incident to the operation of that department, must be paid from the fund of that department, 2. Regular and Incidental Allowances. 1. Fuel and quarters. 2. Forage. 3. Stationery. 4. Transportation. 5. Straw. 6. Camp equipage. 7. Incidental allowances. Major generals, Colonel, Heutenant colonel, major, All other commissioned officers, to every two, To each mess of six or more officers, To the commanding officer of a department or separate post, and to the principal officer of each branch of the division staff, for an office, At posts where there are less than six officers, Every six non-commissioned officers, musicians and privates, including the authorised number of washerwomen and servants, The allowance of fuel for the quarters of the sick, will be regulated by the commanding officer and surgeon. At all posts, garrisons and cautonments, north of the 40th degree of latitude, the allowance of fuel may be increased one fourth, during the months of December, January and February. Coal may be issued in lieu of wood, in proportion to the cost thereof. No fuel furnished for the use of a garrison, post, camp or cantonment, shall be removed therefrom, but by the quartermaster attached thereto: and any overplus of fuel, beyond what has been used, or may be necessary for the use of the troops at such post, camp, or cantonment, shall revert to the United States. No fuel to be issued but within the month for which it is due, and no fuel or quarters to be allowed to officers whilst on furlough. The senior officer shall, in every instance, have the choice of quarters, in succession from the highest to the lowest grade, except in regular cantonments, when company officers shall take their stations as in camp. Quarters will not be rented for officers of the army, when there are public quarters suitable for their accommodation, at the place where they may be stationed, except in cases where the peculiar nature of their duty requires them to be stationed remote from the public quarters. This will rarely occur; and it is made the duty of the officers of this department, to keep the public quarters in suitable repair, so that their bad condition shall not be made a pretext for renting. On the arrival of an officer at a post, he shall immediately make a written requisition on the quarter-master for quarters, who shall, in all cases, furnish public quarters, where there are any vacant. At all posts in the vicinity of public or Indian lands, which afford fire-wood, the necessary fuel will be provided by the troops, under the direction of the several commanding officers. Requisitions for fuel must state the number of non-commissioned officers, musicians, privates, servants, batmen and washerwomen, for whom it may be demanded, and certified by the commandant of the regiment, garrison, or recruiting rendezvous. 2. Forage. To all horses in actual service there shall be allowed fourteen pounds of hay, and twelve quarts of oats, or in lieu of oats, eight quarts of corn per diem. Officers will be allowed to draw forage in kind, when on actual service in the field, or when under orders to hold themselves in readiness for the field, for the number of horses they may actually keep in service, not exceeding the following rates: Major Generals, Brigadier Generals, Colonels, Lt. Colonels and Majors, All other officers entitled to forage, seven, five, four, three, two each. |