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REPORT

OF

THE SECRETARY OF WAR.

To the PRESIDENT:

WAR DEPARTMENT,
November 15, 1883.

I have the honor to submit the following annual report of the administration of this Department:

EXPENDITURES, APPROPRIATIONS, AND ESTIMATES.

The expenditures by requisition under the direction of the War Department during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1883, were as follows:

Salaries, contingent expenses, and postage.

Military Establishment-Army and Military Academy.
Public works, including river and harbor improvements
Miscellaneous objects.....

Total

$2,146, 005 10 27,830,976 15 15, 659, 337 31 4,154, 736 86

49,791, 055 42

and the sum of $1,663,151.30 was credited under the act of March 3, 1879 (20 Statutes, 420), to the subsidized Pacific railroads, for transportation services rendered the War Department during the fiscal year 1883, and prior years.

The appropriations for the fiscal year 1884 are as follows:

Salaries, contingent expenses, and postage..

Military Establishment-Army and Military Academy..

Public works ....

Miscellaneous objects, including Signal Service

Total....

$2,248, 121 66 24,951,557 50

1,925, 344 80 2,641,928 07

31,766, 952 03

The estimates for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1885, as revised by me, are as follows:

Salaries, contingent expenses, and postage, including one-third of the
estimate of the superintendent of the State, War, and Navy Depart-
ment Building

Military Establishment-Army and Military Academy..
Public works, including river and harbor improvements
Miscellaneous objects, including Signal Service .

Total

$2,322,078 33 27, 136, 152 41 11, 649, 049 62 3,278, 926 42

44,386, 206 78

The principal items of increase of the estimates for salaries over the appropriations for the present fiscal year are for two clerks and three laborers in the office of the Secretary, fifty additional clerks in the Signal Office, four clerks in the Ordnance Office, and two clerks in the Bureau of Military Justice. An increase of compensation is again Jecommended for the chief clerk, disbursing clerk, chiefs of divisions, and stenographer in the office of the Secretary, and it is thought eminently just that these officers should receive the moderate compensation requested for the responsible and arduous duties performed by them. The two additional clerks and three laborers for the office of the Secretary of War are required for the stationary division, the division of miscellaneous supplies, and the library. A large reduction has been made in purchasing the stationery and supplies required for this office and the bureaus of the Department by making contracts with the lowest bidder upon each article. The labor necessarily involved under this system in receiving, accounting for, and delivering the supplies is great, and the Department has been inconvenienced in providing for the prompt transaction of the business. The distribution of the official records of the rebellion, devolved upon the Secretary's office by the act of August 7, 1882 (22 Statutes, 320), has also greatly increased the labor of the office, particularly of the librarian, who has been charged with the work, and an additional laborer is required therefor. During the past year he has received 176,000 volumes of these records, and has mailed to separate addresses over 30,000 volumes, keeping a record of each volume so sent.

The estimates for the support of the Army and Military Academy are based upon the actual requirements of the service, the several items of increase being explained by notes accompanying them.

The appropriations for the support of the Signal Service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1883, have been found insufficient, and estimates will be submitted to supply the deficiencies. Some difficulty was experienced in carrying out the provisions of the act of August 7, 1882 (22 Statutes, 319), which limited the expenditures to $300,000 from appropriations for support of the Army, in addition to the specific appropriations for that service. Thirty-eight days of the fiscal year had already expired, and, although the best efforts of the Department were exercised to keep the expenditures within the limit of the appropriations, its endeavors were not completely successful.

THE ARMY.

The report of the General of the Army has a special interest in being the last annual report that General Sherman will make. At his own request he has been relieved from the command of the Army, preparatory to his retirement from active service under the act of 1882. He has therefore thought it best to refrain from making any new

recommendations in his report, leaving that duty to his successor in the command of the Army, Lieutenant-General Sheridan. He, however, calls attention to and renews a former recommendation that a new organization be adopted for the regiments of infantry so that each shall be composed of twelve companies, making three battalions of four companies each, each company having one hundred men; and that in time of peace two of these battalions shall be maintained on a perfect war footing, while the other battalion may be a mere skeleton, with its complement of officers, and be used as a nucleus for recruits. The great advantage of this change, as suggested by the General, is the important one of being able to put a large and effective force in the field upon short notice, by merely enlisting a sufficient number of additional private soldiers, the officers and organization being always ready to receive them.

During the past year an additional company in each of the regiments of artillery has been mounted and equipped as a light battery, so that there are now in service ten light batteries, stationed in different parts of the United States.

The history of the Army during the past year has been one of almost unbroken quiet, during which the troops have been engaged in no more active duties than those of guarding the Indian reservations, and in keeping themselves prepared for any service upon which they might be called. The only exception to this record occurred in Arizona. In March last a small party of Indians made a raid from Mexico, and, after killing nine persons, escaped back to the difficult country from which they had come. Brigadier General Crook made a vigorous pursuit, going many miles into Mexico, and, after pentrating into an almost inaccessible part of the Sierra Madre Mountains, had a fight with the Indians, and returned with a large number of prisoners, among whom were fifty-two male Indians. As for some time past the only Indian outbreaks have been in Arizona, special attention has been directed to an endeavor to secure for that region of the country the same quiet which exists elsewhere. After careful consideration of the difficulties involved, an arrangement has been made between the Interior Department and the War Department, under which the police control of all the Indians on the San Carlos Reservation has been given to General Crook, and he has been charged with the duty of keeping the peace on the reservation and preventing the Indians from leaving it. General Sherman expresses the belief that if General Crook is permitted to manage the Apaches in his own way, all wars will cease in Arizona, and that with them will disappear the complicated Indian question which has tested the patience and courage of our people ever since the first settlement by whites on this continent.

The schools for officers (one at Fortress Monroe for higher instruction in artillery, and one at Fort Leavenworth for more perfect instruc tion in matters relating to the cavalry and infantry arms of the service)

are reported by the General as being in excellent condition, and as well managed and fulfilling their purpose; and I concur with him in recommending for them support and encouragement.

The number of desertions from the Army in the past year was nearly 3,600; only a few less than the extraordinary number of the year before. The most earnest efforts are being made to ascertain, and, so far as possible, do away with the causes of desertion. I beg leave to renew the recommendation made last year, that a partial remedy may be found by increasing the pay to what it was in 1865, that is, $16 per month for a private soldier and a proportionate amount for non-commissioned officers.

MILITARY ACADEMY.

The Superintendent reports that the general tone and discipline of the Corps of Cadets are very good. The total number of cadets present September 1 last was 311.

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT.

The full list of officers authorized by law to act as instructors in tactics and military science at colleges throughout the country has been so employed during the past year. The reports show a continuing interest taken by the college authorities and students in this work.

The Adjutant-General recommends that Congress be asked to author. ize the retirement of enlisted men who have served faithfully for not less than thirty-five years with full pay of the grade held by them at the time of their retirement. It is true that the Soldiers' Home near Washington makes provision for most of the cases, but there are others for whom it cannot properly provide. The Adjutant-General, in his report, mentions particularly two cases of old soldiers of forty years, service who are incapacitated for further duty, but who cannot avail themselves of the benefits of the shelter of the Soldiers' Home without leaving their wives and children. I concur in his recommendation that some proper provision be made for such cases.

I beg leave to renew my recommendation, made last year, that the laws should be amended so as to permit officers at remote posts to employ enlisted men, upon the approval of the proper department commander, for domestic purposes, where servants cannot be obtained.

I also renew my recommendation that there be restored the per diem allowance to officers serving away from their stations on courts-martial and military boards. Not infrequently an officer is required to perform such duty under circumstances of considerable hardship in the extraordinary expenses incurred by him.

The Adjutant General recommends that the law in relation to the settlement by enlisted men of their clothing account be so amended as

to require a bimonthly settlement. The reasons given by him for this suggestion in his report show clearly that such a change would be greatly in the interest of economy to the Government, and would at the same time be beneficial to the soldier.

The important records of the Adjutant-General, occupying no less than six rented buildings, have since the last annual report been transferred to the new State, War, and Navy Department Building, where they are now safe from destruction by fire.

A gratifying progress in responding to requests for information in pension and other claims is reported.

The number of unanswered calls on hand October 1, 1882, was. 45,822 There were received during the year thereafter

Finished during the year.

Remaining on hand October 1, 1883..

THE SOLDIERS' HOME.

231,360 255, 923 21, 259

The Board of three Commissioners was increased by act of Congress approved March 3, 1883, to seven, including the General commanding the Army, who is the president of the Board. The same act prescribed new regulations for the Home, the most important being those affecting the management and control of the funds and the pensions of inmates. These regulations appear to be satisfactory, and have been strictly observed.

No additions have been made to the realty of the Home and no important improvements made during the year, except the completion of a library building and rebuilding a barn destroyed by fire early in July. The expense upon both buildings will be about $5,900.

The property of the Home at Harrodsburg, Ky., was offered for sale in April, under authority of an act of Congress approved December 23, 1882, but a sufficient bid could not be obtained.

The Commissioners renew a former request that a small piece of land in the District of Columbia belonging to the Home, and now used for the purposes of a national cemetery, may be purchased by the General Government for the same purpose permanently. An appropriation of $15,000, to be paid in to the Home fund as the price of the ground, is recommended.

The expense for care and treatment of inmates who become insane is paid by the Home to the Government Hospital for the Insane. The Commissioners ask for the Soldiers' Home in the District of Columbia the same privilege of sending insane patients to the Hospital as was granted by act approved August 7, 1882, for the National Home for Volunteers. Appropriate legislation for this purpose is recommended. The total receipts by the treasurer of the Home during the year were $143,035.50, and the cost of maintaining the Home $139,557.63.

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