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38 [stamp] 624. MEIGS, [left hand column] General M. C. Meigs, June 28. 1872. Quartermaster General of the Army, Washington, D. C.

General:

                   I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th inst., in which you call my attention to the waste of grain at Fort  Brown, Texas, resulting from a negligence and defective wording of Contracts made in this Department last year by Lt. Col. Ekin, Chief Quartermaster of the Department.
                   The Contracts, as you know, where made and completed before my assumption of command of the Department, and I can therefore in no way be held responsible either for their merit or defects.
                  In the contracts for this year, every proper precaution in the interests of the Government, has been taken, and suitable terms in regard to deliveries embodied in the Contract.  I enclose a copy of a letter to Commanding Officers of Posts, prescribing the amount of supplies to be kept on hand at posts.
                  These precautions will, it is thought, secure the Government against any such losses as those you refer to, at Fort Brown.
                  In your closing paragraph, you express an apprehension that there may be other losses at other posts in the Department from the same cause.  I regret to say, that your apprehensions