Foster, with an escort of the fourth infantry, to proceed
with the horses to Fort Drane, twenty-two miles north
west, where General Clinch was stationed with four com-
panies of artillery, one of infantry, and two companies

case, grossly neglected to provide transportation to convey them to
the suffering garrison, and they lay in the store house at Picolata
until the l\th or 12th of February. The indefatigable volunteer
Quartermaster Beard, of the Richmond Bines, immediately pressed a
number of horses, carts and wagons into the service, for the purpose of
affording relief to the brave Clinch, and with a small escort arrived at
Fort Drane in time to save that and the other military post from destruc-
tion!

The Commissary General of Subsistence is folly exonerated from any
connexion with this delay ; for, as far as I can learn, he has been prompt
in complying with every requisition npon his department. It may be
well to observe, that between the 6th of January and the 1st of April,
about five hundred and fifteen thousand rations of pork, bacon, flour,
bread find sugar, were ordered by the Commissary General to Florida —
sufficient for the subsistence of one thousand men for five hundred and
fifteen days, or for five thousand men, one hundred and three days. Any
difficulty or delay which may occur in transporting provisions or stores
ef any description, must fall upon the Quartermaster, whose duty it is to
provide the means of carriage.
142 " THE WAR.
