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Appendix to Vol.
I.
Notes.
Note a, page 29.
WE append here, for the benefit of those who may feel interested in the subject, a more detailed description of the functions of the various departments and their respective positions in the staffs of the
American armies.
The province of the adjutant-general comprised;—the recruiting of regiments, their organization, their interior movements, their relations with the special authorities of States, the enrolling of militia and volunteers in the
Federal service, the condition of the men and officers, the promotions, casualties, and resignations, and, finally, the creation and distribution of commands.
All correspondence with bodies of troops in the field was conducted by him; he transmitted the orders of the
President and the
Secretary of War to the generals in command, and the latter addressed all their reports to him.
The
assistant adjutant-generals, besides special duties which might be entrusted to them—such as the organization of new regiments—were attached to the staffs of the army or army corps of every division and brigade.
They prepared, received, and classified all the reports, regulated the commands, transmitted all the records relating to the
personnel of the army corps, and kept up with them the general correspondence; they thus descended from organization to organization, until the regiment itself was reached, the adjutant of which, having control of all administrative operations, was in direct communication with the
assistant adjutant-general of brigade.
The functions of the quartermaster's department, which at a later period were distributed among nine offices into which the department was subdivided, comprised the following services: the purchase and distribution among the army corps of all the effects of the men, equipments,