No army was better supplied than ours in all matters of subsistence, clothing, medical and hospital stores, and in means of transportation.

Two points, however, are worthy of remark in this connection: 1st.

The great waste of material, which resulted from the employment of raw troops under short enlistments, and commanded by officers appointed from civil life, who were without experience and destitute of military instruction; and, 2d.
The immense expense of transportation, which was due in part to the above cause and in part to the employment, in the administrative departments, of civilians who were utterly ignorant of the rules and routine of military service.

This war was conducted on the system of magazines and provisions carried in the train of the army, or purchased of the inhabitants and regularly paid for, forced requisitions being seldom resorted to, and then in very moderate quantities.

The wisdom of this plan was proved by the general good order and discipline of our troops, and the general good-will of the non-combatant inhabitants of the country which was passed over or occupied by the army.
The war in the Crimea proved most conclusively the vast superiority of the French administrative system over that of the English--of the military over a civil organization of the administrative corps of an army.