Boston, April 23,1861.
To His Excellency,
John A. Andrew:
My dear Sir, — To give you an idea of the time it
will take to get good hard bread for shipping: I should think for a
month's supply to our Massachusetts troops now in the field it would need at
least three days from the time the order was given to do it properly — possibly
more.
Other things can be had quicker, but I should like, if you
think proper, to have an order by the bearer to provide a month's supply
of hard bread for 4000 men. By the time this is ready you will have plenty of
troops here and an order for them, and with the bread can send other things to
match. . . .
I don't want to interfere with the duties of your
commissary-general that is to be, but some things take time, and bread
ought to be ordered to-day.
You cannot be too careful in getting a working business
man for the commissariat. It will save the State thousands of dollars, and
save us our credit when accounts come to be settled after the enthusiasm
boils past.
Yours,
J. M. Forbes.
At your Excellency's request the Committee on the Militia
have considered the within proposition. We unanimously recommend that Mr.
Forbes be authorized to purchase forthwith provisions for 4000 for thirty days,
more or less, and that arrangements be made to forward them promptly.
Hugh W. Greene,
John I. Baker,
Oakes Ames,
Committee on
Militia.
Let it be done.
J. A. Andrew.
SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and
Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 212-13
