The casualties among the commissioned officers of the Regular Army between October 1, 1900, and October 1, 1901, are as follows:

The statistics of desertions during the year ended June 30, 1901, show the gratifying fact that, with an average enlisted strength of 71,173 men, the number of desertions reported (3,110) is only 4.3 per cent of the average strength, while for the last six months of that period, the average strength being 74,405, the number of desertions occurring (1,400) further reduced the rate to 1.9 per cent, the lowest rate ever reported in the history of the Army.

THE REGULAR ARMY.

In view of the provisions of the act of March 2, 1899, requiring the muster out of the United States Volunteers not later than July 1, 1901, and of the utter inadequacy of the Regular Army after that date to meet existing conditions, Congress, by the act of February 2, 1901, authorized its increase, on the basis of a 3-battalion organization, to 15 regiments of cavalry, 1 corps of artillery, and 30 regiments of infantry, together with a suitable increase in the several staff departments. The artillery corps (substituted for the existing regimental organizations of the artillery arm of the Army) to comprise two branches-the coast artillery and the field artillery; the chief of that corps, selected from the colonels of artillery, to serve on the staff of the Lieutenant-General Commanding. The coast artillery to consist of 126 batteries and the field artillery of 30 batteries, the aggregate number of enlisted men not to exceed 18,920, exclusive of electrician sergeants, and the increase provided for the artillery to be made as follows: Not less than 20 per cent before July 1, 1901, and not less than 20 per cent in each succeeding year until the entire number shall have been attained. Section 30 of the act above quoted authorizes the President to maintain the enlisted force of the several organizations of the Army at their maximum strength during the present exigencies of the service, or until such time as Congress may otherwise direct.

All reports evince that the officers and men are in a good state of discipline. The enlisted men have never been of a higher character. The fact that from the ranks during the year, after careful and rigorous physical and mental examination, two hundred have been commissioned second lieutenants in the Regular Army, speaks volumes for their intelligence and high soldierly bearing.

The general orders to govern the above organization of the Army will be found in the appendix to this report.

PHILIPPINE SCOUTS.

By section 36 of the act of February 2, 1901, the President was authorized to enlist natives of the Philippine Islands for service as scouts and to organize them under officers of the Army into companies, squadrons, or battalions, the total number of enlisted men in the native organizations not to exceed 12,000 men; the total enlisted force of the Army, together with such native force not to exceed 100,000 at any one time.

PORTO RICO REGIMENT.

Section 37 of the same act authorizes the organization of one provisional regiment of not exceeding three battalions, for service in Porto Rico, the enlisted strength to be composed, as far as practicable, of natives of that island, and the regiment to continue in service until further directed by Congress.

UNITED STATES VOLUNTEERS.

The act of March 2, 1899, authorizing the President to raise a force of not more than 35,000 volunteers, but providing that this increased force should not be continued in service later than July 1, 1901, made it advisable that all volunteer enlistments authorized by the law quoted should terminate June 30, 1901. The provisions of the act were duly carried into effect as herein indicated.

The following instructions will indicate the care taken by this Department to govern the integrity of the records and guard the rights of all concerned:

Maj. S. C. MILLS,

HEADQUARTERS DIVISION OF THE PHILIPPINES,
Manila, P. I., September 29, 1900.

Acting Inspector-General, Division of the Philippines. (Through Adjutant-General.)

SIR: Replying to your letter of the 22d instant, I have the honor to say that it will greatly facilitate the work of discharging the volunteers if the several inspectorsgeneral of the division are authorized, as you suggest, to bring to the notice of the regimental and company commanders some of the points and questions that most frequently arise and call for determination by mustering officers.

Briefly stated, the muster-out roll of a company or of the field, staff, and band is a concise descriptive record of the whole period of service of each individual officer or soldier who has at any time belonged to it, together with a complete exhibit of his final account, whatever the date his connection with the organization may have terminated. It is, therefore, of the first importance to ascertain if the names of all such officers and men appear in the descriptive book, requiring entry in cases of omission. Men enlisted in the regiment who were soon discharged as unsuited to the service, deserted, were transferred, etc., even before preparation of organization rolls, can not be ignored. If assigned to companies being formed, they should be accounted for in company descriptive books; if unassigned, the regimental commander takes them up correspondingly in the regimental records and at muster out carries them

at the foot of the roll of the field, staff, and band as "Recruits unassigned to companies."

Records already examined show an average of 100 to 150 men lost as above to each regiment during organization, and in many instances their names are not entered in any clothing and descriptive book. Inspectors may well remind company and other commanders that a soldier once enlisted in or assigned to an organization, even though he may die, desert, be transferred or discharged the day following, has an accrued pay and clothing and perhaps other account that must be exactly stated on the muster-out rolls. It should therefore be properly set forth in the records from which the rolls are to be made.

As will readily be seen, the descriptive book, with its accompanying clothing accounts, is the key to the situation in the mustering officer's work. So far as at present known, the plan of the War Department contemplates preparation of the muster-out rolls on board the transports while regiments are returning to the United States, and it is desired to have this book in each company and at regimental headquarters so complete and accurate in the information required that it may be necessary to refer to almost no other book or paper in making up the rolls. By setting apart an additional space for "Remarks" for each officer and soldier, utilizing for the purpose a quarter or half section of one of the numerous blank pages, with proper index reference thereto, the clothing and descriptive book becomes a ledger into which are condensed all accounts and essential facts in the military history of the individual concerned. Such entries should comprise, among other data needed for the muster-out rolls, the following, whenever pertinent to any name:

1. When, where, and by what authority an officer or soldier originally joins for duty.

2. All cases of sickness, either in quarters or hospital, specifying dates, inclusive, and whether or not in line of duty.

3. All trials by summary court, with dates and sentences; all trials by general courts-martial, with sentences and reference to orders publishing proceedings; in cases of fines imposed by either, noting on what pay rolls same deducted.

4. Each deposit by a soldier to be separately stated, giving date, name of paymaster, and amount.

5. Notation of extra or special duty, detached service, changes in rank or grade, leaves of absence and furloughs, with number, source, and date of order in each case. 6. Cases of arrest by civil authority, showing place and period, together with offense charged, and whether tried and convicted, or acquitted, or released without trial.

7. Any particular incident in an officer or soldier's service deserving mention, and not included in the general "Record of events" of the company or regiment.

While information should be noted as above indicated, so far as practicable, in the case of every commissioned officer and enlisted man who has at any time been a member of an organization, further and important action should be taken to completely state the final records and accounts of those who have ceased to belong to it. Such descriptive and clothing accounts should be closed, and the same observance of accuracy in all details as though involving a full period of service and presence with the command at muster out. Discharge, death, or desertion of course call for settlement of a soldier's clothing account to date of the event, showing balance due soldier or the United States. When transferred, the soldier's clothing account is stated, not settled, and the muster-out roll must show-as the clothing book should-when last (if ever) settled, and the money value of clothing drawn since settlement (or since enlistment) to date of transfer. Particular remarks in the descriptive book, where services or accounts have been terminated, should set forth:

In case of transfer:

(a) Date, place, and to what organization, with number, source, and date of order. (b) Descriptive list furnished.

(c) Character.

(d) Physical condition.

(e) Whether service honest and faithful.

(f) To what date, and by whom last paid.

(g) Dues to the United States for ordnance, quartermaster or subsistence stores, or other charges or credits, together with any further data entered on descriptive list not already of record.

In case of discharge:

(a) Date, place, and authority. If on surgeon's certificate of disability, so state, with nature and degree of disability.

(b) Discharge, and final statements given.

(c) Character.

(d) Physical condition.

In case of discharge-Continued.

(e) Whether service honest and faithful. f) Whether entitled to travel pay.

To what date, and by whom last paid.

Dues to the United States for ordnance, quartermaster or subsistence stores, or other charges or credits, together with any further data entered on final statements or discharge certificate not already of record.

In case of death:

(a) Date, place, and cause; latter to be explicitly stated.

(b) Inventory of effects, deposit book (if any), and final statements forwarded to the Adjutant-General.

(c) Character as a soldier to be noted.

(d) Whether service faithful and honest.

To what date, and by whom last paid.

(f) Dues to the United States for ordnance, quartermaster or subsistence stores, or other charges or credits.

(g) Disposition of remains, whether by burial and where, with number of grave, or by shipment for delivery to relatives.

(h) Disposition of effects, whether by council of administration or delivery to legal representatives.

(i) Any other data entered on final statements not already of record.

In case of desertion:

(a) Date and place. Ordinarily the date of desertion is that on which a soldier absents himself from his command and not the later date when, the act of desertion established, he is dropped from the rolls.

(b) Character prior to desertion to be noted.

(c) Physical condition.

(d) To what date and by whom last paid.

(e) Dues to the United States for ordnance, quartermaster or subsistence stores, or other charges, or credits.

(f) Men gained from desertion by apprehension, surrender, etc., are properly taken up and new accounts opened for them in the clothing and descriptive book as are men gained from other sources.

In descriptive books that have been examined an average of 20 to 40 names appear (or, it has been found, should appear) on the casualty pages for the register of men "Transferred," "Discharged," "Died," and "Deserted." If a book is cor

rectly maintained according to its purpose, the sum of casualties reported under the four headings deducted from the whole number of individual descriptive accounts in the body of the book gives a balance agreeing with the "Total enlisted, present and absent," of the morning report on the day of inspection. A discrepancy shown by this test calls for inquiry to discover omissions or erroneous entries, and is generally determined by consulting early or later records, such as the organization and subsequent muster rolls, the morning reports, assignment cards, and even clothing schedules, it being constantly borne in mind, as already stated, that every individual who has ever belonged to the organization must be fully accounted for in this book preparatory to similar action in his case on the muster-out rolls.

Apart from special questions relating to muster out herein touched upon, it gives me pleasure to say that in general, so far as I have had the opportunity to observe, the books and records of the volunteer regiments show creditable adherence to the regulations, with due attention by the officers concerned to instructions affecting them received through your department. Among some of the irregularities noted, however, may be mentioned the following:

1. Medical officers do not in all cases state in sick report book that sickness is or is not in line of duty.

2. Two very common errors are to give dates and quote orders inexactly, it being stated, for example, that an event occurred March 3, or May 21, the year not mentioned, and in pursuance of "Special Orders 72," without specifying the source and date of the order.

3. Some officers attach descriptive lists received to pages of the clothing and descriptive book, whereas pertinent matter that such lists contain should be copied into the book and the descriptive lists filed.

4. Retained pay rolls rarely bear in the columns and allotted space above signatures the names of the paymasters who paid them, nor are stoppages and amounts paid always entered in ink.

5. In many instances, in the three regiments organized in this division, the important paper known as the organization roll has not been prepared. In each case of a company or the field, staff, and band where the neglect continues the rolls should be

made up at once, in duplicate, one copy to be forwarded to the Adjutant-General of the Army, the other retained. The roll may be given a current date. In the body of it should be entered the names of officers and men now belonging to the organization, followed at the foot of the roll by the names, under appropriate headings, of all who have ceased to belong to it.

6. Clothing schedules occasionally lack one or more of the three official signatures required at the foot to constitute them complete vouchers.

7. The integrity of names is not scrupulously preserved. A man enlisted under the name of John W. Smith. is perhaps carried in official records as John Smith or J. W. Smith, Willsor. as Wilson, etc., and the men improperly permitted like irregularities in their signatures. Company and other commanders should critically compare records subsequent to the organization roll for the detection of errors of this nature and with reference to the requirement that soldiers must be discharged or mustered out under their names as given at enlistment unless authority for change has been granted from the War Department.

8. Separate, distinct, and carefully preserved files of the different classes of official papers are important. These include letters, orders, descriptive lists, and communications or papers of whatever nature received, together with clothing schedules, retained monthly returns, muster rolls, pay rolls, etc. Such files are not invariably maintained with the care that is desirable.

At muster out all books of record and official papers of every description are delivered to the mustering officer for transmission to the War Department. As they are required to be correct and complete as far as practicable in all minor as well as important details, it must be evident to all concerned that attentive application in advance to that end will save infinite labor and annoyance during the short period allotted for discharge after assembly for that purpose.

Very respectfully,

S. P. JOCELYN, Lieutenant-Colonel, Twenty-fifth United States Infantry.

In view of the large number of convalescent volunteers in the army general hospitals, particularly at San Francisco, and of the fact that the terms of service of these men, if returned to their respective organizations, would necessarily be brief, instructions were issued September 6, 1900, by order of the Secretary of War, for the discharge of all convalescent volunteers who were able to travel with comfort and safety, their service being no longer required; and that to avoid confusion and guard against loss of records, the descriptive lists of these discharged men were to be listed by regiments, filed at headquarters of the Department of California, to be turned over to the respective regimental commanders upon their arrival at San Francisco.

At the urgent request of General MacArthur, authority was granted December 17, 1900, for the retention of all regular officers serving under volunteer commissions, whose regular organizations were stationed in the Philippine Islands, and also for the retention to June 30, 1901, of volunteer officers assigned to special duty and who desired to remain. Authority was also granted for the discharge of all volunteer regimental medical officers who desired to remain in the Philippines and accept employment as contract surgeons; but instructions were issued that care must be taken in every case that no transport sailing with returning volunteers left Manila without ample and competent medical attendants.

The question of the place at which the muster out of the regiments should take place received most careful consideration, and San Francisco was, on the expressed wish of the officers and men, selected as the point at which this should be effected.

The report of the commanding-general, Department of California, shows that the muster out in every case was "quiet, orderly, and without incident," and that the number of the men mustered out who immediately purchased railroad tickets to their respective homes was fully 97 per cent.