A very brief history...
Organization of the Quartermaster General's Department occurred under the Act of 28 March, 1812, and in March of 1813 - a Commisary General of Purchases came into being, along with nine Deputy Commissaries and six Assistant Commissaries.
Military storekeepers supplanted Quartermaster Officers, and these men were the civl servants of the times.
In 1842, the Quartermaster General assumed all supply functions from the Commisary General of Purchases, and Congress removed most military storekeepers.
Only Officers constituted the Quartermaster Staff until Congress authorized eighty Post Quartermaster Sergeants in 1884.
The Quartermaster General's Department, Pay Department and Post Commissary Sergeants united to form the Quartermaster Corps - effective 1 November 1912, as a result of a rider attached to the Army Appropriations Act of 1912.
Quartermaster responsibilitues included purchase of supplies other than food, transportation of personnell and equipment by water, rail, wagon and stage, purchase, repair and operation of vessels and the maintenance of wharves.
Food for thought, if an Impression is to be done.
The Post Quartermaster Sergeant would be the responsible man dealing with minutae.
In short - he was a bureaucrat and most likely he was pretty pleased with the assignment - which kept him warm and well fed and pretty much indoors - and gave him some power besides, in the late days of his long career.
His uniform bordered on something short of 'plain', since there weren't many distinguishing marks at the time.
Vaya,
Scouts Out!