The duties under the Inspector-General are the inspection of military posts and troops, particularly with reference to material, supplies, disbursing accounts, and any matters connected with the military establishment or pertaining to military laws or regulations upon which reports or advice may be required by the Department for the promotion of discipline, the proper performance of duty, or the reformation of abuses.
The Judge Advocate-General receives, reviews and records the proceedings of all military trials, and furnishes reports and information therefrom whenever required, and gives opinions upon such questions of law as may be referred to him by the Department.
The Quartermaster’s Department is charged with the duty of furnishing transportation for troops, materials of all kinds, and all supplies; horses for cavalry and artillery; all camp and garrison equipage, forage, fuel and buildings; in a word, all manner of supplies except food, medicines, arms, and ammunition. The national cemeteries are under charge of the officers of this department.
The Subsistence Department provides all the food for the army, being charged with the duty of purchasing, distributing and issuing to all the stations occupied by troops. It also keeps in store for sale to officers many articles of regular supply not included in the ration table. The office of the Commissary-General of Subsistence occupies the building half a square north of the Treasury Department, in which Mr. Seward lived when he was Secretary of State under President Lincoln, and where the attempt was made to take his life on the same night the President was assassinated.
The Pay Department is just what its name indicates. From its officers every person in the military service, from the commanding General to the recruit receives his salary or pay. All persons in government employ immediately connected with the army, who are not paid by the Quartermaster’s Department, receive their pay from the Pay Department.
The Medical Department, under the direction of the Surgeon-General, is charged with the care of the sick and wounded, and for this purpose procures all medicines, medical and surgical appliances, and other supplies appertaining to that special branch of the service. It is also an office of record, receives reports of all cases of disease, wounds or injury in the army, and furnishes information therefrom upon claims for pensions. It also furnishes artificial limbs to persons entitled to them, or pays a commutation in lieu thereof, to those who prefer it. The Department has collected a library of sixty-five thousand seven hundred bound volumes, forty-seven thousand pamphlets, and thirty-eight thousand dissertations upon subjects pertaining to the medical profession, which, with a medical museum of great value, occupies the building in which President Lincoln was assassinated.