the Government and their establishment upon reservations selected with care and good judgment, having reference to the diverse character and habits of the different tribes, their local attachments, and private animosities. He then speaks of the policy of the civilian agents who, on the return of peace, were placed over the Indians, in violating the pledges given to them by the military on the termination of hostilities, and sets forth the disastrous consequences attending such violation. The report of the commanding general of the Department of Arizona treats mainly of Indian affairs, which the recent hostilities in that section and the requisitions of the Interior Department for troops to aid in carrying into effect the orders and policy of its agents have brought into more prominence in that Territory than in other parts of the country. He speaks with commendation of the good results that have been obtained from the working of the Arizona telegraph-line, which is being extended from Camps Verde and Lowell to Camps Grant, San Carlos, and Apache, and thence into New Mexico. He reports that the increased security to the inhabitants of Arizona resulting from the recent military operations against the Indians has encouraged immigration, and the population of the Territory has largely increased in the past year. The settlers have felt safe to bring in stock, which has been materially augmented during the summer. Miners have felt secure in their pursuits, and consequently many valuable mines, particularly of silver, have been discovered and are now being developed. He thinks that with a few years of peace and with increased facilities of transportation, the Territory will develop into one of the most productive of those yielding the precious metals. Owing to the determination of miners to the headwaters of the Stikeen River, attracted by the discovery of gold in that portion of Alaska, and to prevent the occurrence of difficulties between them and the Indians, who annually resort there, Fort Wrangle was re-established as a military post August 1, and garrisoned by a company. The general commanding the Department of Columbia renews his recommendation that the attention of Congress be invited to the present anomalous condition of the Territory of Alaska, which, under recent decisions, is nearly without the jurisdiction of the courts of law. The government—a military officer acting as Indian agent-is better than none, but is reported as irritating to those who consider themselves possessed of the same rights and privileges as citizens of other Territories. Peace can be preserved between Indians and whites by the Army, but that authority itself is called in question by the United States district court. If the Army is to govern the Territory, Congress should clearly establish that fact by appropriate legislation. The commanding general renews a former recommendation that Alaska be attached to Washington Territory as a county, and brought under its civil government, and his facilities for judging of the necessities of that action are such as to give great weight to his opinion. The report of the commanding general of the Division of the Atlantic calls attention to the steps that have been taken to carry out the provisions of the act of March 30, 1875, relative to the establishment of a national park on the island of Mackinac, Michigan. It is probable that owing to this legislation the capacity of the fort for troops will have to be increased, and another company of infantry stationed there. The report of the commanding general of the Division of the South refers to the expediency of providing a suitable refuge from yellow-fever for the troops quartered on the north side of the Gulf, and Mount Vernon Barracks is suggested as most suitable for that purpose. The prevalence of epidemic diseases in many localities of the South, where the necessities of the public service demand that troops should be stationed, and the impossibility of so isolating many of the present stations as to prevent contagion among the soldiers, demand that the subject of the establishment of some general rendezvous where those threatened with yellow-fever or other epidemic disease can be temporarily quartered should receive early consideration at the hands of Congress. This subject is also treated of in the report of the commanding general of the Department of the Gulf, and its importance as affecting the hygiene of the Army cannot be overestimated. The actual expenditures of the War Department for the year ending June Showing a reduction of...... The estimates for the military establishment for the ensuing fiscal year ending June 30, 1877, are.. Those for the current fiscal year, ending June 30, 1876, were.. Being an increase of.. The appropriations for that purpose for the current fiscal year were............ $42, 326, 314 71 41, 277, 375 28 1,048, 939 43 $33, 452, 396 50 32,488, 969 50 963, 427 00 $28,727, 407 99 The excess of the amount of the estimates for the ensuing fiscal year over the appropriation for the current fiscal year arises from the fact that, as experience has shown, the appropriations were not sufficient to meet the demands of the service. The appropriations for the Subsistence and Pay Departments, based as they are on the actual number of men to be paid and subsisted, are notably below the sums actually required. The basis of calculation for the pay and subsistence of the Army must necessarily be that of the maximum number of soldiers and officers allowed by law. This necessity arises from the fact that the Army, although perhaps at one time a few hundred short of its maximum strength, is frequently quite up to its highest standard, the variation depending on the success of recruiting to meet casualties. As the pay and allowances are fixed by law, it is no difficult matter to ascertain the exact amount requisite to meet the obligations of the Govern ment to its soldiers; and when the carefully-prepared estimates of the Department-based upon calculations that have been reduced, by a knowledge of the fluctuations of the strength of the Army, to an almost mathematical certainty-are materially cut down by Congress, grave embarrassments, such as have recently resulted from the large reduction of the appropriations asked for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1875, must necessarily occur. For the last month of that fiscal year the unexpended balance of appropriation for pay of the Army was only sufficient to give each officer and soldier about one-half of what they were entitled to for June, 1875, so that there remains due upon contract with the Government the amount necessary to give them the remaining one-half month's pay. The Paymaster-General has been instructed to submit a deficiency estimate to meet this want. Had the estimates submitted not been cut down several millions by Congress the appropriations would have sufficed to meet all legal demands upon them, and would have left but little, if any, surplus to be turned into the Treasury as unexpended balances. By the act of July 15, 1870, the Secretary of War was authorized "to permit one or more trading establishments to be maintained at any military post on the frontier, not in the vicinity of any city or town, when he believes such an establishment is needed for the accommodation of emigrants, freighters, or other citizens. The persons to maintain such establishments shall be appointed by him, and shall be under protection and control as camp-followers." This changes the previous custom, under which the department commander had charge of the appointment of sutlers for military posts. I suggest that a law be passed giving the appointment of sutlers, as heretofore, to department commanders, including in its provisions authority, as it now exists, to the council of administration at each post to regulate the prices of the goods to be sold by the traders, and also authority to the proper military commander to limit the amount to which a soldier shall be trusted by the sutler, that amount to be collected from his monthly pay. A provision of this kind would, I think, be wise, as it would prevent that excess of expenditure which now occurs where there is no supervision exercised. Good progress has been made during the year in the preparation of the official records of the war of the rebellion, both in the Federal and Confederate branches. I have placed the general supervision of the compilation of these records in the charge of the chief clerk of the Department, who, under my direction, has organized an efficient force of assistants, selected from those clerks who are best acquainted with the arrangement of the official papers on hand and who are well adapted to the work for the purpose by experienee with Department and Army records. In order to facilitate the compilation and historical arrangement of the reports and correspondence, it was found necessary to copy and print a few proof-sheets of each document, so that the services of more than one person could be made available upon this part of the work, and also in order that when authentic copies had been printed the danger of loss by accident or fire, &c., might be avoided. The amount of research and investigation which are required before any perceptible progress appears is very great. Owing to the pressure of affairs during the war, the field-records were kept in a hurried and sometimes crude and careless manner, and when turned in to the Department were often in a chaotic condition, so that the labor of their arrangement, which is now undertaken, is naturally slow and tedious. It is hardly necessary to state that in the compilation no document in the possession of the War Department will be omitted which will throw light upon the events of the late war or be valuable to future history, and I may add, in respect to what shall be included and what not, the order is that it is better to embody too much than too little. I beg here to suggest that the War Department can furnish no more than its own records afford, and that for a complete history the records of almost every other Department will need to be consulted, and to this end the attention of Congress is invited to this part of the subject. From the immense mass of papers on hand the required documents are being selected, copied, compared, and put to press, at the Department; the proof being carefully read and compared with the original papers, and each document, letter, report, telegram, and paper is being printed separately. Accuracy is absolutely required before these printed copies are placed in the hands of the compiler, whose duty it then is to collate and group the various subjects in order of date and in accordance with their relation to each other. A large mass of material has been collected, copied, and a great portion of it printed, and, as far as practicable, the printing has been done from original documents, when the nature of the records admitted, without recourse to copying by hand. This matter has not yet received its final arrangement and classification, owing to the difficulty of selecting at the same time papers relating to contemporary subjects. The estimate for the continuation of the work for the next fiscal year is fifty thousand dollars. By virtue of an appropriation of $25,000, made by Congress at its last session for the purchase of what is known as the Brady Collection of War Views, the Department has come into possession of a very large number of negative plates illustrating battle-fields, fortifications, camp scenes, military positions, the topography of sections of country over which many of our most important military operations were conducted, and photographs of most of the Union and many of the confederate officers of prominence during the late war. For purposes of illustration, these, of course, are far more accurate than any map could be made, taken as they were upon the spot, very often immediately before, or subsequent to, the engagements, the scene of which they picture. As this valuable pictorial history of the war is recorded on glass plates, liable to be utterly destroyed or defaced by accident, the Department has taken measures for securing permanent benefit to the Government from the expenditure of the money appropriated by Congress, by having a few proofs struck off from each plate of importance, and in that way producing a sufficient number of copies of these pictures to secure the views from distruction by any ordinary accident. The attention of Congress is invited to the consideration of the question whether it would not be eminently proper to provide for an edition of these pictures to illustrate the history of the rebellion, the preparation of which is now in progress in this Department. In the present advanced state of the arts a sufficient number of copies of each desirable view could be secured by the heliotype, or other similar process, at a very small cost, compared with the ordinary prices for litho. graphing. Such illustrations need not supersede, but would supplement, the maps necessary for illustration, and they could be prepared pari passu with the compilation of records now in progress. Information has been received from different sources that many private individual have in their possession important official records, principally of the late confederate government, which they are willing to dispose of for a consideration, but for the purchase of which there are no funds available at the disposal of this Department. Of course these records are properly the property of the Government, but it seems impossible to obtain the information necessary to their recovery through the courts, or otherwise than by purchase. No doubt is entertained but that many of these papers contain data that would enable the Government to detect many fraudulent claims, which could only be proven to be such by the agency of these papers, and it is recommended that Congress, by appropriate legislation, place this Department in a position to recover such as properly belong to its files. As it now is, these confederate records are so incomplete that the result of their compilation will necessarily be very unsatisfactery to all concerned. The estimates of the Superintendent of the Military Academy, which will be submitted to Congress, have been carefully revised by myself in the interest of economy, and make no demand for appropriations beyond those necessary for the maintenance of the military establishment at West Point save what is found to be necessary for the interests of the service. The construction of the new cadet hospital has diligently progressed, and if the appropriation asked for it is granted and made available from the date of the passage of the act of appropriation, the hospital will be ready for use next winter. The system of sewerage inaugurated at West Point has not hitherto been carried out as rapidly as desirable, the efforts in this direction being crippled by the small appropriation heretofore granted. A more |