ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



laws for the punishment of trespassers upon In- 

 dian reservations are inadequate, and asks for a 

 law making such interlopers strictly amenable to 

 punishment. Secretary of the Interior Schurz, 

 in his annual report, expresses similar views of 

 Indian policy. The policy of massing the In- 

 dians on the largest reservations, which was 

 followed in the beginning of the present Ad- 

 ministration, in accordance with which the 

 Pawnees, the northern Cheyennes, and the 

 Poncas were removed to the Indian Territory, 

 Mr. Schurz thinks has been a mistaken one. 

 The policy advocated is to respect the rights 

 which the Indians possess in the lands they oc- 

 cupy and their attachments to their homes, 

 and by teaching and encouragement to culti- 

 vate among them independence and a love of 

 work and desire to accumulate private prop- 

 erty. He advises giving separate holdings of 

 land, with an inalienable title running a suffi- 

 cient length of time ; proposing to allot lands 

 in fee simple eventually to Indians able to 

 maintain themselves upon them, and to dis- 

 pose of the lands of those of the Indians 

 who do not prove themselves able or disposed 

 to maintain themselves upon them, for the 

 benefit of and with the consent of the own- 

 ers, to white settlers. The aim of such a 

 policy is to dissolve the tribal system and to 

 gradually make citizens of the Indians. By 

 a dacision of the United States Circuit Court, 

 rendered by Judge Dundy, the Ponca Indi- 

 ans are entitled to the lands in Nebraska from 

 which they were removed. By the same prin- 

 ciple their former reservation in Dakota will 

 be returned to them, and the Sioux, to whom 

 the Poncas' lands were assigned and who now 

 hold them, have no legal title and may be dis- 



The Chief of Engineers, General Horatio G. 

 Wright, directs attention to the backward con- 

 dition of the harbor defenses. Only a small 

 portion of the existing fortifications are of re- 

 cent construction, and planned with reference 

 to modern heavy ordnance. These are all of 

 them earthen barbette batteries. The case- 

 mated forts, which were as good as any in the 

 world when they were built, were designed 

 only to resist the attacks of wooden vessels, 

 and are pierced for guns long out of date. The 

 modern naval vessels are armed with guns of 

 from 9 to 17 inch bores, firing 800 to 2,000 

 pound projectiles, and are clad with from 6 to 

 24 inches of iron armor. Foreign nations have 

 naval stations within a few hours' sail from the 

 American shore. Immediately upon the dec- 

 laration of a war these fast war-steamers could 

 appear at any one of the American ports and 

 pass the present batteries with ease. The navy 

 could not avert such a danger, and no rapid 

 concentration of troops could prevent the burn- 

 ing of the ssaport thus attacked by explosive 

 shot. Some of the wealthiest cities of the 

 United States, thousands of millions' worth of 

 property, and a large part of the naval and 

 military stores of the Government, are thus ex- 



posed to quick destruction upon the first out- 

 break of a war. This danger can only be suc- 

 cessfully guarded against by a thorough system 

 of harbor fortifications constructed in accord- 

 ance with the principles followed by European 

 nations, casemated forts armed with the heavi- 

 est artillery and protected by thick iron scarps, 

 supplemented by earthen batteries and a well- 

 planned system of torpedo defense. Barbette 

 batteries may be used entirely in the ports 

 with shallow harbors which will riot float the 

 heaviest ironclads. Fortifications should be 

 studded along the channels of approach of 

 every harbor and in the harbor, and in all 

 waters in the neighborhood of a city within 

 the longest direct or curved range of modern 

 gunnery. In the harbor mouths and channels 

 should be placed lines of torpedoes for the pur- 

 pose of holding the vessels of the enemy under 

 the fire of the fortifications. The torpedoes 

 should be ready in the fortresses to be laid 

 down at the breaking out of a war according 

 to regular plans which have been studied out 

 with reference to the topography of the bot- 

 tom and the tidal currents. The wire for firing 

 the torpedoes should be securely laid in subter- 

 ranean galleries conducting from the secure 

 chambers within the fortifications, where the 

 electrical apparatus is placed, out into deep 

 water. Heavy mortars should be placed to 

 command every position where the enemy 

 might anchor either for the purpose of shell- 

 ing the city or of destroying the torpedo lines. 

 The guns and mortars should be heavy enough 

 to penetrate the iron plating and break through 

 the decks of ironclads, and should be numerous 

 enough to prevent the fastest war-steamers from 

 running their fire. The present casemated forts, 

 where they can be strengthened and pierced for 

 haavy ordnance, ought to be coated with strong 

 plates of iron, and provided with iron casemate 

 shields to protect the guns and gunners from 

 direct or curved fire. 



The trial of a 11-inch muzzle-loading rifled 

 cannon which had been made over from a 15- 

 inch smooth-bore has been very successful, and 

 proves the practicability of converting old guns 

 into effective weapons of the approved form. 

 With this gun 398 rounds were fired with 90 

 pounds of powder and 495 and 543 pound shot, 

 and 3 with 95 pounds of powder and 540 pound 

 shot. Tests with an 8-inch breech-loader, with 

 battering charges of 35 pounds of powder, 

 led the Board of Ordnance to recommend the 

 breech-loading system. The advantages of the 

 use of chambers in rifled cannon for heavy 

 charges having been tested with a 3-inch rifle, 

 one of the 8 inch rifles was chambered and 

 tried. After a preliminary trial 100 rounds 

 were fired with the maximum charge of 55 

 pounds of powder and 180-pound shot. The 

 velocity was found to be about one third 

 greater than in the unchambered guns, and 

 the power and accuracy were increased, while 

 the wear of the bore by the 55-pound charge 

 was no greater than that produced in the other 



