COMMISSARY

August Kautz, Customs of Service for Officers

271.	LIEUTENANTS are selected to perform the staff duties of the Regiment in the capacity of Adjutant, Quartermaster, and Commissary. Their duties to be given in detail are so extensive and important as to require a separate book. Only a general outline of their duties will here be given.
296.	COMMISSARY.- The Regimental Commissary is also a Lieutenant, and the custom has been to appoint him in the same way as provided for the Quartermaster. (Reg. 73.) Many Regiments, however, are not allowed an additional Lieutenant for this duty, and in most instances the duty is performed by the Regimental Quartermaster acting in both capacities.
297.	The duty is of the utmost importance, but plain and simple, and requires simply attention and integrity. It is important for the reason that the troops must be fed, and fed properly, for nothing will so soon demoralize an army as the neglect or failure to supply the legitimate and proper ration.
298.	The regulations for the subsistence department are much the most clear and complete of any department in the Army, and require no explanation. They govern the Regimental Commissary as well as the Staff Commissary, and, being limited to the supply of certain articles of provisions, the sole duty of the Commissary is to keep on hand the required articles, and weigh them out, and keep an account of the same. The transportation of the supplies is entrusted to the Quartermaster's department, thus relieving him of the most responsible part of the duty in connection with the feeding of the troops.
299.	A purchasing Commissary has a more difficult and responsible duty to perform, and circumstances may render it necessary for a Regimental Commissary to do this duty, particularly when the Regiment is remotely situated, and cost of transportation would make it more economical to obtain the supplies on the spot.
300.	In this case a knowledge of the articles composing the ration, and experience in trade is very essential, notwithstanding that the regulations contemplate the services of an inspector to examine the supplies. The same general principles govern in the smallest purchases that apply to a depot Commissary purchasing for a large army.
301.	It is only in case of urgent necessity that the Commissary can go into open market to make purchases. If time and circumstances permit, proposals are invited, and the lowest responsible bidder receives the contract, and a written agreement is made in quintuplicate, and the faithful fulfillment hereof guaranteed by a sufficient bond made in duplicate. (Reg. 1178 to 1182; see forms 36, 37, and 38 Sub. Reg.)
302.	The accountability of the Commissary is similar to the accountability in the other departments of the service. There are three sets of papers that must be kept distinct, viz.: The accounts current and vouchers, showing the receipt and expenditure of all public moneys on account of the commissary (department; the return of provisions and forage with its abstracts of issues, showing all the provisions and forage received and issued; and the property return, accounting for all the Commissary property, except provisions and forage, for which the Commissary has become responsible within the month; all these papers must be rendered monthly.
303.	There does not seem to be any definite regulations for the appointment of Commissaries except in the Cavalry Regiments, and for them the law allows an additional Lieutenant for that position. All the other Regiments seem to be unprovided for, and the custom has been, in most of the old Regiments, to require the Regimental Quartermaster to act as Commissary also, and in all other cases to appoint an Acting Commissary, as in the case of an Acting Quartermaster, who is governed in the discharge of his duties by the same laws and regulations that are provided for Staff Commissaries.
304.	All subalterns, acting in the capacity of Commissaries, are entitled to $20 per month, minus one ration, in addition to their pay as Lieutenant. The account requires the approval of the Commissary General, and his certificate that the Commissary has acted in the capacity of Commissary during the period for which pay is claimed. (Act March 2d, 1827, sec. 2.)