.MTAzMQ.Njg4MjI

independence (to which end they are working all the time) & unless Rank in the Line interferes, post commanders may as well yield their Command. Were I to give the Hd. Quarters Superintendent a direct [underline] order, the Qr. Master would think it an interference & want of courtesy, & yet your Chf. Qr. Mr. habitually gives direct orders to the Qr. Mr. here, who is my Superintendent - I am responsible for the efficiency of my Command. Yet Genl Meyers assumes the right to order every leave from the post at his discretion, & without my knowledge. I am expected to see that my Comr. is properly supplied with provision, fuel, forage &c, &c, yet if I give an order in reference to any one of them, I may be (& am) much [illegible] by the information that other orders leave here rec'd from Hd. Qrs. I can it is true, direct the Qr. Mr. to communicate all orders to me, & countermand such as I think wrong or injurious. this is trouble & collision at once.

   I was in hope that the arrival of Col Camp would change this but he has already taken occasion to tell me that he is one the Staff of the Quarter Master General, & responsible to him alone through Genl. Myers.  That he has already these two masters & cannot serve three.  The the Comdr. of Post has nothing to do with him, must give him orders in writing &c.  He admits that the Post Comdr. may arrest him, but denies his power to relieve him from duty, or take his property out of his hands.  In other words if he be arrested, the Qm Dep closes its doors & its labors.   In regard to papers & employees the Comd Officer is expected to sign the first without care [?}   & to know nothing of the employment or discharge of the latter.
    I know unofficially [underline] that Genl Myers ordered (in Feb or March) a large