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made with strict reference to the supposed necessities of each and as equitable as it was possible to make it, yet in the receipt and distribution, there has been great inequality.  The poorest counties, and those in which the greatest want existed, were usually the most remote from the supply depots.  requiring the greatest expense for transportation and having the least means for paying it.  Many of these counties had neither money nor credit and found the greatest difficulty, in having their supplies moved from the depots, or distributed within their most needy districts.  Not infrequently, in some of these counties, where the greatest destitution prevailed, an entire month would elapse before they could obtain wagons or other transportation.  The Army regulations positively prohibiting the issue, of what is termed back rations, the entire apportionment for the month would thus be lost.  It also frequently happened, that the supplies failed to reach the Depots by the first of the month, and agents acting with all promptness and incurring heavy expenses were compelled to return without their quota of rations.  Much of this difficulty might have been prevented if there had been regular mail routes or other facilities for communication.  Several counties failed to receive their supplies at the depot in Greenville, in consequence of improper conduct on the part of an Agent, who was promptly removed as soon as the facts were made known.
The inequality in the distribution was to some extent remedied in the month of June by an order from General Swayne directing the entire monthly apportionment to be delivered to the agents of the counties when applied for during the