 However, he took no action until 1863, when he informed Brigadier General Joseph Pannell Taylor, head of the subsistence office, that he could pack 15 million pounds of meat in an unused city porkhouse.Symonds estimated that the army could buys live hogs for four and a half cents a pound and pack them for no more than five cents per pound.This program would theoretically save the U.S Government $150,000.