Commissary officer

“ Just at that time, however, the officials of the commissary department saw fit to feed the whole army on bacon and flour, articles which, if given to troops in that quarter of the country at all, must be brought several hundred miles by rail. The local commissary officers made various suggestions looking to the use of the provisions of which the country round about was full, but, so far as I could learn, no attention whatever was paid to them. ”

“ Not only in every regiment, but in every detachment of the United States’ Army, officers are detailed for these special purposes, with a staff of subordinates selected from the ranks, and directly responsible to the head-quarters of their respective departments. The commissary receives from thence and issues to the troops clothing and subsistence stores. ”

“ When a see is vacant the jurisdiction is exercised by a “special commissary” of the metropolitan. Commissary is also a general military term for an official charged with the duties of supply, transport and finance of an army. In the 17th and 18th centuries the commissaire des guerres, or Kriegskommissär was an important official in continental armies, by whose agency the troops, in their relation to the civil inhabitants, were placed upon semi-political control. ”

“ Not for any one. What do you mean by that?”
“I thought it was the commissary,” said the boy.
“Ah, sapperment! I knew we were in a droll neighborhood,” murmured the driver. “It would seem they never see a cabriolet here except when it brings the commissaire de police to look after some one.” ”

“ The commissary shall issue orders entrusting the matter, as is customary, to some one of the familiars whom he has to keep in the city. Until he has familiars, for lack of them he shall entrust it to the person on whom he has most reliance, and in whose integrity he most confides. When it is necessary, but only then, he may ask for the aid of the royal officials of justice. Whenever this shall be necessary, the royal officials may seize only the person pointed out to them by the Holy Office; and they must assist him, giving their favor and aid only for such person. ”

“ Prosper, with the fearful resignation of a man who abandons himself, replied, in a stifled voice:
“Do as you will.”
The banker was near the door, which he opened, and, after giving the cashier a last searching look, said to an office-boy:
“Anselme, ask the commissary of police to step down.”
III
If there is one man in the world whom no event can move or surprise, who is always on his guard against deceptive appearances, and is capable of admitting everything and explaining everything, it certainly is a Parisian commissary of police. ”

“ With truth then I can declare that no man, in my opinion, ever had his measures more impeded than I have by every department of the army. Since the month of July we have had no assistance from the Quartermaster-General, and to want of assistance from this department the Commissary-General charges great part of his deficiency. ”

“ It embraced the eatablishment of depots of stores, each in charge of a ‘reserve commissary,’ at Croydon, Leatherhead, Guildford, Farningham, and Rochester. In 1799 the post of commissary-general in England was created or restored for the benefit of Sir Brook Watson, and Le Mesurier, holding that he was thereby placed in a secondary position contrary to express stipulation, entered into a spirited controversy with the authorities, which ended in his resignation in June 1800. All the officers employed under him were soon after reduced, and a totally different system introduced. ”

“ The man in the mustache was inexorable. The commissary closed his office at eight, and we must go instantly to certify to our passports, and get new ones for the interior. Cloaks and umbrellas were brought, and, bon gre, mal gre, we walked half a mile in the mud and rain to a dirty commissary, who kept us waiting in the dark fifteen minutes, and then, making out a description of the person of each, demanded half a dollar for the new passport, and permitted us to wade back to our dinner. ”

“ On 17 Nov., 1865, he became commissary of subsistence with the rank of major, and since the war he has been the commissary-general of various departments. He became brigadier-general in 1894, and was retired in 1897. ”

“ That a personal obligation should interfere with an official duty was inconceivable.
Hardly a week elapsed, however, before the inconceivable confronted him. It arrived in the mail from Paris. Every employee in the prefecture observed that morning that the commissary, always so methodical, so impassive, appeared agitated. At ten o'clock he closed his desk and left the prefecture without explanation—an unheard-of proceeding. The bonne of the Abbé d'Arlot was no less surprised, on answering the bell at the garden gate, to see the commissary before her. ”

“ In cases of disobedience, disrespect, hindrance, and obstruction to the free and just exercise of the Holy Office, which also are wont to occur, the commissary shall be careful not to lose his temper, or to give way to words or deeds injurious and offensive to any person ”

“ In an army in active service, the position of a commissary affords him an opportunity, if he is so inclined, to carefully observe, if not military operations, at least the strange country to which the war has brought him. ”

“ But the commissariat ought to be under the immediate superintendance of an officer of considerable abilities; possessing a mind capable of comprehending, and performing with accuracy his extensive part in all military combinations, for almost every thing in war depends upon the troops being regularly supplied with food. ”

“ If they'd only put a good face on it, and pay willing obedience to King Joseph—though, to tell the truth, he's only a proxy for the emperor,—they'd live a quieter life and make the duties of the commissary less of a torture. I tell you, young man—moi qui vous parle—there isn't a more harassed man in the army than the commissary-general. ”

“ Behind all this, comes the most important question of 'grub.' The commissariat [82] of the British Expeditionary Force is a marvel of organization. During the last six months of my military service I enjoyed the advantage of travelling up and down the lines from Ypres to Bethune, and everywhere I was most profoundly impressed by the marvel of supply. Scattered over the whole front are units, large and small, each of which has to be fed daily; and woe to the unlucky A.S.C. officer who is responsible for delay in forwarding or conveying rations. ”

“ The chief quartermaster and the chief commissary were graduates. The chief commissary, now the Commissary-General of the Army, begged off, however, saying that there was nothing in engineering that he was good for unless he would do for a sap-roller. As soldiers require rations while working in the ditches as well as when marching and fighting, and as we would be sure to lose him if he was used as a sap-roller, I let him off. The general is a large man; weighs two hundred and twenty pounds, and is not tall. ”

“ These [Pg 34] hands—the hands of men, women and children—are placed in rows before the Commissary, who counts them to see the soldiers have not wasted the cartridges. The Commissary is paid a commission of about a penny per pound upon all the rubber he gets; it is, therefore, to his interest to get as much as he can. ”

“ Commissary,' said I, 'one of your frigates captured the English cutter Nelson some time ago, but the capture was not complete.'
"'How so?' inquired the commissary.
"'Because, Mr. Commissary,' said I, 'you did not capture the boatswain, and a British ship without a boatswain is no good; it is like a body without a soul.'
"'Is that all you have to tell me?' said the commissary, looking glum. ”

“ The Commissaries of the army will supply the troops with all that they require in the usual manner, and no requisition is to be made direct on the country or its magistrates, by any officer or soldier. The Commissaries will receive directions, either from the Field Marshal or from the Generals commanding the troops of the several nations (if these troops should not be supplied with provisions by the British Commissariat) to make requisitions as may be necessary for the supply of the troops, for which they will give the usual voucher and receipt ”

“ The commissary department was open to us. Their troops guarded us, and we reconnoitred, surveyed, located, and built inside of their picket-line. We marched to work by the tap of the drum with our men armed. They stacked their arms on the dump, and were ready at a moment's warning to fall in and fight for their territory. ”

“ The man who goes out to do battle for commercial or professional success from an ill-managed and inefficient kitchen and dining-room is as badly off as the army with an inadequate commissary department. Yet, while the commissary department of the modern army receives the most scientific and careful supervision, many a man must leave his kitchen in the hands of a wife who received her training in music, literature, modern languages, and classics, or in a business college, and of a servant who received what little training she has as a farm laborer in Europe. ”

“ The Commissioner of the General Land Office exercises a general superintendence over the subordinate officers of his department, and is clothed with liberal powers of control, to be exercised for the purposes of justice, and to prevent the consequences of inadvertence, irregularity, mistake, and fraud, in the important and extensive operations of that officer for the disposal of the public domain. ”

“ And now about this commissary business. As I understand it, a commissary is a sort of caterer in a big way. That is, he looks out for a good many more things than a caterer has to bother his head about. Reilly's brigade has probably from two to three thousand men in it, and in regard to certain things you've got to look out for every man of 'em every day. I know perfectly well you couldn't successfully run a boarding-house in Ocean Grove. How you goin' to manage for all these soldiers, hey? Thought about it?'
'No,' said Casper, injured. 'I didn't want to be a commissary. ”

“ And be it further enacted, That the better to enable the commissary general of subsistence to carry into effect the provisions of the above specified acts, there be appointed two commissaries, to be taken from the line of the army, one of whom shall have the same rank, pay, and emoluments, as quartermaster ”

“ Great as my difficulty was, I did not suffer it to appear so to the commissary, but calmly said that I 'd return to my hotel, and run my eye over a list of the merchants for one to be my bail.
The packet was to sail that evening with the tide; and as the office of the commissaire closed at four o'clock, there was little time to lose. I wandered on “from street to street; I walked into cafés; I sat down in the most public places, scanning with eagerness every face that passed me, and straining my eyes to try and detect the features of an acquaintance. ”

“ Le Corbier turned to the special commissary:
"M. Jorancé, do you confirm this deposition?"
"I confirm each of my friend Morestal's words in every respect," said the commissary. "They express the truth. ”

“ A commissariat officer is not made in a day, nor can the most lavish expenditure effect the work of years, or atone for the want of experience. The hardest-working treasury clerk had necessarily much to learn ere he could become an efficient commissariat officer, in a country which our old campaigners declare to be the most difficult they ever were in for procuring supplies. ”

“ He entered the commissariat as clerk on 25 July 1805, was made acting assistant in the following year, assistant commissary-general in 1809, deputy commissary-general in 1814, and commissary-general on 1 July 1840. He served at the Cape from 1805 to October 1808, in Spain in 1808-9, including the Corunna retreat, and in the Peninsula from April 1809 to August 1810, from October 1810 to June 1811, and from July 1812 to September 1814 ”

“ Commissioner " (he was very short with him) , "is an expedition against the pirates. It is a secret expedition, so please to keep it a secret."
"Sir," says Commissioner Pordage, "I trust there is going to be no unnecessary cruelty committed?"
"Sir," returns the officer, " I trust not."
"That is not enough, sir," cries Commissioner Pordage, getting wroth. "Captain Carton, I give you notice. Government requires you to treat the enemy with great delicacy, consideration, clemency, and forbearance." ”

“ He served during the remainder of the Peninsular war, following the army to the fields of Vittoria, Nivelle, and Toulouse, and to the actions in the Pyrenees. He was promoted to be deputy-assistant commissary-general in 1811, and assistant commissary-general on 25 Dec. ”

“ He buckled to his work, accepted the most burdensome tasks so as to increase his income and give Suzanne a good education, was transferred to the commissary's office at Lunéville and, somewhat late in life, was promoted to be special commissary at the frontier. ”

“ We give shelter to any one who—"
Commissary. "Ah, you should beware, for the law is very severe in this particular. It is a subject on which there is no joking! You would subject yourselves to very severe punishment; for a man condemned to capital punishment, it would be nothing less than——"
Husband (quickly) . "We are not afraid of that, monsieur commissaire."
Commissary. "I believe you, and rely on you. However, that I may have nothing to reproach myself with, you will permit me to make a slight search, just a simple formality. ”