commander. In the
Waterloo campaign, for instance, Marshal Soult was the chief of
Napoleon's staff, and the emperor attributed his disaster, in part, to
some of the orders issued by the marshal.

Our limits will not permit a description of the duties pertaining to the
various members of the staff, but we pass to the consideration of those
departments, the operations of which most directly affect the soldier,
are indispensable to every army, and are most interesting to the public.

Let us first consider the _quartermaster's department_, which, from the
character and diversity of its duties, the amount of its expenditures,
and its influence upon military operations, may be ranked as among the
most important. This department provides clothing, camp and garrison
equipage, animals and transportation of all kinds, fuel, forage, straw,
and stationery, an immense variety of the miscellaneous materials
required by an army, and for a vast amount of miscellaneous
expenditures. It is, in fact, the great business operator of a military
organization. In an active army, the success of movements depends very
much on its efficiency. Unless the troops are kept properly clothed, the
animals and means of transportation maintained in good condition, and
the immense trains moved with regularity and promptness, the best
contrived plans will fail in their development and execution.

The department, at the commencement of the war, had supplies in store
only for the current uses of the regular army. When the volunteer forces
were organized it became necessary to make hasty contracts and purchases
to a large amount; but as even the best-informed members of the
Government had no adequate prevision of the extent and duration of the
war, and of the necessary arrangements for its demands, a considerable
period elapsed before a sufficient quantity of the required materials
could be accumulated. Those were the days of 'shoddy' cloth and spavined
horses. The department, however, exhibited great administrative energy,
under the direction of its able head, General M. C. Meigs, and has amply
provided for the enormous demands upon it.

Depots for the reception of supplies are established in the large
cities, whence they are transferred as required to the great issuing
depots near the active armies, and from them to the depots in the field.
Thus, the main depots of the Army of the Potomac are at Washington and
Alexandria--a field depot being established a