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454. 71 [page stamp] A.G.O. [left margin] General E. D. Townsend, Adjutant General of the Army, Washington, D. C. General,

               I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of our letter of the 6th. instant, desiring to be furnished with  List of the Military Posts within this Department, receiving their supplies by the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway, with the distances of such post from the nearest station on said road.
               In reply I have to state that the M. K, & T. R. R. has completed its connection with the Texas Central, making a continuous R. R. route from St. Louis, Mo. to Galveston, Houston and Austin, Texas.             Forts Dill, Gibson, Richardson and Griffin are being supplied now by this road.  It is proposed however for reasons following, that all the Posts in this Department - except Forts Brown, Ringgold Barracks and McIntosh, be supplied hereafter by this road and its connections as far as they extend.
               Up to this time New Orleans has, of necessity, been the Depot for this Department, though always unfitted for it by reason of its hot and moist climate.
               All Commissary Stores, forage and other Quartermaster's stores suffer from protracted exposure to it.  Even the mere passing through New Orleans and the Gulf Posts in summer, when they mostly arrive, effects our stores injuriously.
              As New Orleans furnished of itself no supplies, except sugar, they are shipped from other points and remain in depot until required at Posts.  Another objection is, that stores coming that route now to San Antonio, are handled five time before reaching this place, to their great loss and deterioration.
              By the new route, now offered by the completion of the Railroads referred to, St. Louis or Chicago naturally becomes the Depot for this Department.  Stores can be sent from either of those places to Austin, without change of cars.