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APPENDIX No. 7.

POST OF WILLETS POINT, NEW YORK-UNITED STATES ENGINEER SCHOOL-BATTALION OF ENGINEERS-ENGINEER DEPOT.

REPORT OF LIEUT. COL. W. R. KING, CORPS OF ENGINEERS, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1893.

UNITED STATES ENGINEER SCHOOL,

Post of Willets Point, New York Harbor, July 17, 1893. GENERAL: I have the honor to forward herewith duplicate annual report on the post of Willets Point, New York Harbor; the United States Engineer School; the Battalion of Engineers, and Engineer Depot, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1893.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Brig. Gen. THOMAS L. CASEY,

W. R. KING, Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers.

Chief of Engineers, U. S. A.

I.-POST OF WILLETS POINT.

At the close of the fiscal year the garrison consisted of 21 commissioned officers and 335 enlisted men, including the following general staff and infantry officers:

Maj. Egon A. Koerper, surgeon, U. S. Army.

Capt. William P. Kendall, assistant surgeon, U. S. Army.
Second Lieut. Sidney S. Jordan, Fifth Artillery.

Second Lieut. Edward F. McGlachlin, jr., Fifth Artillery.
Second Lient. Willis Uline, Twelfth Infantry.

Second Lieut. Walter M. Whitman, First Cavalry.

The following table shows the changes among the general staff and line officers at the post during the year:

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During the year the following work has been done under the post quartermaster (Lieut. Henry Jervey until March 11 and Lieut. Edgar Jadwin since that date) with funds allotted by the Quartermaster's Department, supplemented as far as practicable by the labor of the garrison:

1. The new guardhouse has been completed and occupied, and is found well adapted to the purpose for which it was designed.

2. The old guardhouse has been removed to a suitable site in the grove near the line of barracks and is being fitted up as quarters for the band sergeant.

3. The two brick barracks which were begun during the previous fiscal year have been somewhat delayed by the inefficiency of the contractors, but they are now nearly completed and will soon be occupied. A third barrack, which will complete the housing of the three companies stationed here, has recently been authorized, and will be placed under contract at an early day.

4. Some extensions and repairs have been made to the quartermas ter's wharf, roads, sidewalks, drains, and sewers, and the usual amount of labor and materials have been applied to the preservation and repair of public buildings.

5. At the suggestion of the post quartermaster, the Long Island Railroad Company has expended $200 in building a suitable landing near the station of Whitestone Landing for the small boat that runs between that point and Willets Point and Fort Schuyler.

The most important improvements still unprovided for are the building of a quartermaster and commissary storehouse near the wharf, the cleaning out of the ditch bounding the Government lands on the southwest, the walling in of the ice pond, and the lighting of the post by electricity.

The necessity for these improvements has been set forth in former reports, and plans and estimates have been prepared. Without going into details that have been already reported, it may be stated in brief that the cleaning out of the ditch and walling in of the ice pond would improve the sanitary condition of the post by getting rid of a swampy margin that now borders the ditch and pond, would prevent surface water from running directly into the latter, and greatly improve the

quality of the ice, which is now deemed unsafe for use excepting for indirect cooling of water.

The quartermaster and commissary storehouse is needed to replace old and dilapidated frame buildings, and by its location near the wharf, where all supplies are landed, to save an enormous amount of labor in hauling freight the entire length of the post, or about half a mile.

The electric lighting of the post should be provided for because, with our facilities in machinery and mechanics, it can be done at a moderate cost, and would dispense with some hundreds of oil lamps, which now consume about 800 gallons of oil per month If it is proposed to adopt modern methods of lighting military posts, it is believed that it could be tried here at smaller cost for plant and with greater prospect of economical results in operating than at any other post.

II.-UNITED STATES ENGINEER SCHOOL.

The scope and object of the school have been fully set forth in previous reports and in the order establishing it on its present basis; the orders issued in pursuance of the latter, arranging the details of the season's work, are appended, marked A, B, and C.

During the present year a class of three engineer officers completed the full course of two and one-half years, and seven officers of infantry completed their course of torpedo instruction.

*

III.-BATTALION OF ENGINEERS.

The law provides for five companies of engineer troops, having an aggregate strength of 752 enlisted men, officered by detail from the Corps of Engineers.

At present only four companies with a total strength of 500 enlisted men are allowed to be recruited.

The aggregate strength of the Battalion of Engineers on June 30, 1893, including Company E, stationed at West Point, N. Y., was 18 commissioned officers and 418 enlisted men.

During the year Companies A, B, and C have been stationed at Willets Point; Company D exists in name only; Company E has been stationed at West Point, to assist in the practical instruction of cadets of the Military Academy, in building military bridges, sapping, mining, and signaling.

Second-Lieut. Edgar Jadwin, Corps of Engineers, was relieved from duty with Company B, Battalion of Engineers, and appointed acting battalion quartermaster to date March 11, 1893, in Orders No. 26, Headquarters, Battalion of Engineers, Willets Point, March 3, 1893. Appointed acting assistant quartermaster post of Willets Point, to date March 11, 1893, and assistant commissary of subsistance, post af Willets Point, to date March 1, 1893, in Orders No. 38, post of Willets Point, New York Harbor, March 3, 1893. Appointed quartermaster Battalion of Engineers, March 11, 1893, in Orders No. 32, Headquarters Battalion of Engineers, Willets Point, March 11, 1893, as authorized by letter from the Secretary of War, dated War Department, Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, D. C., March 18, 1893.

Second Lieut. Jay J. Morrow, Corps of Engineers, was transferred from Company A to Company C, Battalion of Engineers, October 11, 1892, in Orders No. 110, Headquarters Battalion of Engineers, Willets Point, October 10, 1892.

Second-Lieut. Charles S. Bromwell, Corps of Engineers, was relieved from duty with Company A, Battalion of Engineers, May 30, 1893, in Orders No. 37, Headquarters Battalion of Engineers, Willets Point, May 30, 1893, in compliance with Special Orders No. 117, Headquarters Army, Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, D. C., May 24, 1893; assigned to duty with Company E, Battalion of Engineers, same order. The following table shows the changes that have taken place in the personnel of the officers during the year, viz:

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During the year recruits for the battalion have been obtained by enlistments at Willets Point and West Point, and by assignment on their own application from recruiting rendezvous or other branches of the service.

An engineer sergeant was detailed to recruit for the Battalion of Engineers on February 17, 1893, and was attached by the superintendent of recruiting service to rendezvous No. 146 Park Row, New York City. The following is a statement of changes among the enlisted men of the battalion during the past year:

Gain:

Recruits from depot..

Enlisted in battalion (Willets Point, 35; West Point, 28)..
Reënlisted in battalion (Willets Point, 22; West Point, 9)
By transfer

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26

63

31

6

9

135

30

for disability...

1

by sentence of general courts-martial.

11

by Special Orders.

5

by General Orders 80, Adjutant-General's Office, series 1890
by General Orders 81, Adjutant-General's Office, series 1890

57

21

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The net loss, 19 men, is due to the operation of General Orders 80 and 81, series 1890.

During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1893, 110 men of the Battalion of Engineers were entitled to be discharged under the provisions of par. 2, General Orders No. 80, Adjutant-General's Office, 1890, 57 of whom availed themselves of this privilege.

Seventy-two enlisted men were on furlough during the year, under the provisions of General Orders No. 80, Adjutant-General's Office, 1890.

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