COST OF TRANSPORTING TROOPS, &c. 
Quartermaster General’s Office, 
Washington City, November 16, 1854. 
Sir: In reply to your letter, dated the 8tli instant, asking information in regard to trans¬ 
portation, I have the honor to report, in answer to the “1st.—The present cost of transporting 
troops to San Francisco and Fort Vancouver, via the Isthmus, how much for each officer and 
soldier; stating whether the price includes their food, and, if not, what additional amount is 
paid for food, or the transportation of their rations and arms,”—that the last troops sent to 
San Francisco, via the Isthmus, (in May, 1854,) their transportation was as follows: $225 for 
each commissioned officer; $150 for each enlisted soldier, laundress, &c. 
The whole were subsisted by the contractor; 100 pounds of baggage allowed to each person 
on the steamers, and 25 pounds each across the Isthmus; all over the 25 pounds across the 
Isthmus to be paid for at 15 cents per pound. No troops have been sent from the Atlantic 
coast direct to Vancouver or Oregon, via the Isthmus. For those sent from San Francisco, 
California, to Vancouver or Oregon, in June, 1853, $15 was paid for each commissioned officer, 
and $40 for each enlisted soldier, &c., and $30 a ton for stores. In December, 1853, $15 a 
ton, and in February, 1854, $20 a ton, for stores. 
From information received from New York since the receipt of your letter, I learn that the 
company now demands $300 for each officer, and $150 for each enlisted soldier, from New 
Orleans to San Francisco, including the transit of the Isthmus—extra baggage to be paid for 
at 15 cents per pound. 
To the “2d.—What is the cost of the transportation of provisions, in bulk, to San Francisco 
and Fort Vancouver, via the Isthmus, and also via Cape Horn,”—I have to report that no pro¬ 
visions or other public stores, in bulk, have been sent to San Francisco or Fort Vancouver, via 
the Isthmus; but from information just received from New York, I learn that the present 
charges by that route are $14 a ton to Aspinwall, $300 a ton (15 cents per pound) across the 
Isthmus, and $80 a ton from Panama to San Francisco—say $394 a ton of 2,000 pounds. The 
agents of the line think, that when the railroad across the Isthmus shall be completed, the 
freight across will not exceed one-fourtli of the above, $15 a ton—say $169 for the whole dis¬ 
tance. Via Cape Horn to San Francisco, or Benicia, subsistence stores have been shipped 
during the present year from Baltimore at 90 cents per cubic foot, $4 50 per flour-barrel; and 
from New York at $3 10 per barrel for flour, and 60 cents per cubic foot for other packages. 
To the “3d.”—The same rates will apply to camp and garrison equipage and clothing ; as 
all such freight, by sea-going vessels, is charged for by the cubic foot. 
To the “4th,” I have to report that ordnance and ordnance stores have been sent from New 
York, via Cape Horn, in June, 1854, at two cents per pound for ordnance, consisting of heavy 
guns, carriages, shot and shells; in August at $28 per ton for the same, and in October at two 
cents a pound for the heavy ordnance; and 60 cents per cubic foot for ammunition, and other 
boxes, &c. None have been sent via the Isthmus. 
To the “5th” I report, that, during the present year, the contracts for the transportation of 
military stores of all kinds are as follows: 
I rom Fort Leavenworth to El Paso, $14 per 100 lbs. 
