The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918 Page: 334
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The Southwestern Iistorical Quarterly
each officer and agent was ordered to report at once the nature of
his duty, the authority under which he was acting, and the extent
of his operations.38 Agents who had been sent out from Rich-
mond were thus made responsible to the commander. He pro-
ceeded next to organize his military bureaus and announced a chief
for each branch of the service; then he ordered all officers and
agents connected with that branch to report to this chief. The
ordnance bureau was located at Marshall, Texas, under Major Gen-
eral Benj. Huger; the quartermaster's, subsistence, and medical
bureaus at Shreveport until removed to Marshall in May, 1864,
under Lieutenant Colonel L. W. O'Bannon, Major W. B. Blair,
and Surgeon J. M. Haden, respectively. " All other bureaus were
in Shreveport. T. G. Clemson was made head of the nitre and
mining service, July 11; Colonel B. Allston was appointed in-
spector general for the department; Brigadier General E. Greer
was made head of the conscript service, and R. S. Thomas of the
army intelligence office. Later the labor bureau and others, even
a navy office, were organized in the same manner. All return,
and reports which the Regulations of the Army required should
be sent to the heads of bureaus in Richmond, were hereafter to be
sent to the chiefs of the respective bureaus in the Trans-Missis-
sippi Department." This established a complete military admin-
istrative system for the department separate from but patterned
after that at Richmond. It is hardly profitable here to, trace step
by step the evidences of the commander's control of these agencies.
Officers were removable at his will; and in some instances, he re-
fused to remove officers appointed by himself to make a place for
others sent from Richmond with instructions to be assigned to a
particular place.41 A few of the most important bureaus only need
be considered here.
Organization was made of first importance in these agencies. A
special form of bond was devised and required of each officer in
8General Orders No. 31, Off. Recs., XXII, ii, 948.
"See various General Orders, Off. Recs., XXII, ii, 828, 969, 991; also
Huger to Johnson, ibid., 1139, and 'Smith to Davis, ibid., 1003-1004.
"S'mith to Cooper, July 11, 1863, Off. Roes., LIII, 87,6-877; General
Orders No. 133, May 30, 1864, idem., Vol. XXXIV, iv, 635-636; Vol. XLT,
iv, 1030, 1082; The Galveston Weekly News, March 13, 185.
"Smithl to Cooper, December 3, 1864, Off. Recs., XLI, iv, 1094. But
see ibid., 1122.334
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918, periodical, 1918; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101073/m1/340/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.