ARMY, UNITED STATES. 



sheriff. If time will permit, every demand 

 from a civil officer for military aid, whether it 

 be for the execution of civil process or to sup- 

 press insurrections, should be forwarded to the 

 President with all the material facts in the 

 case for his orders, and in all cases the highest 

 commander, whose orders can be given in time 

 to meet the emergency, will alone assume the 

 responsibility of action. By a timely disposi- 

 tion of troops where there is reason to appre- 

 hend a necessity for their use, and by their 

 passive interposition between hostile parties, 

 dangers of collision may be avoided. Depart- 

 ment commanders, or, in case of necessity, their 

 subordinates, are expected in this regard to ex- 

 ercise upon their own responsibility a wise dis- 

 cretion, to the end that in any event the peace 

 may be preserved." 



In his " opinion," Attorney-General Evarts 

 used this language : " Nothing can be less in 

 accordance with the nature of our Government, 

 or the disposition of our people, than a frequent 

 or ready resort to military aid, in execution of 

 the duties confided to civil officers. Courage, 

 vigor, and intrepidity, are appropriate qualities 

 for the civil service, which the marshals of the 

 United States are expected to perform, and a 

 reenforcement of their power by extraordinary 

 means is permitted by the law only in extraor- 

 dinary emergencies." 



The only portion of the army which has seen 

 active service during the year is that under the 

 command of General Sherman in the Depart- 

 ment of the Missouri, where operations against 

 the hostile Indians on the Plains have been car- 

 ried on from time to time. (See INDIAN WAR.) 



Among the changes recommended in the 

 general administration of affairs, is the trans- 

 fer of the management of all matters pertain- 

 ing to the Indians from the Department of the 

 Interior -to that of War, and there is consider- 

 able probability that such a change will be 

 made. 



Steps have been taken, under authority of 

 the acts of Congress, approved August 3, 1861, 

 and June 25, 1864, for dropping from the rolls 

 of the army, upon the report of an examining 

 board, such officers as may be found unfit for 

 service on account of intemperate or vicious 

 habits. Much will undoubtedly be done in 

 this way to elevate the character of the service. 

 A reform is recommended by the Adjutant- 

 General in the matter of military prisons. 

 Guardhouse confinement he regards as an in- 

 effectual and very injurious mode of punish- 

 ment, and discharge from the regiment is at 

 once followed by an enlistment in another re- 

 giment under an assumed name. He recom- 

 mends military prisons, which, he says, if prop- 

 erly managed, would serve as reformatory in- 

 stitutions, and would rid the army of many vi- 

 cious and insubordinate men ; they would ma- 

 terially diminish the need and expense of courts- 

 martial, prevent the discharge of many desper- 

 ate men in the unsettled parts of the country, 

 where they always become pests and outlaws, 



ASIA. 



43 



and would facilitate the recognition of offend- 

 ders against the civil law who have entered 

 the ranks of the army. He proposes to build 

 the first prison in New York harbor, and if that 

 is found to work well, then he would have Con- 

 gress to provide for similar institutions on Ship 

 Island, at one point on the Pacific coast and at 

 one point in the Mississippi valley. The labor 

 of convicts and the stoppages of pay would, he 

 thinks, nearly support each prison after its erec- 

 tion. He would have companies of discipline 

 attached to each prison, into which, under 

 proper regulations, all idle and worthless men of 

 the class who prefer being in the guardhouse 

 to doing duty should be transferred, and would 

 have these vagabonds severely dealt with. 



Great attention has been given to gathering 

 and identifying the remains of soldiers, slain in 

 the late civil war. There are now 72 na- 

 tional cemeteries, besides very many local and 

 private grounds. The whole number of graves 

 recorded is 316,233, and the occupants of 

 145,764 have been already clearly identified. 

 Some twenty-five rolls of honor have been pre- 

 pared, which contain a list of the graves of 

 nearly 200,000 soldiers, with a record of the 

 place where the remains were found, and about 

 100,000 concerning the occupants of which no 

 record has yet been made, though documents 

 in existence may furnish the needed informa- 

 tion. The records which are made contain all 

 the facts which could be gathered concerning 

 the bodies of the dead. The expense of this 

 care for the relics of the fallen soldiers of the 

 nation thus far is about $2,000,000, and it is 

 thought that $500,000 more will be needed. 

 The Grand Army of the Republic inaugurated 

 this year a custom of strewing with flowers the 

 graves of the buried soldiers, on the 30th of 

 May, a tribute to their departed comrades 

 which it is proposed sacredly to observe from 

 year to year. This touching observance w^s 

 by no means confined to the members of the 

 Grand Army, but people of all classes through- 

 out the country joined in this floral tribute 

 to the memory of the dead. 



There was a " grand reunion " of the officers 

 of the Thirteenth Army Corps, and of the 

 Armies of the Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland, 

 and Georgia, at Chicago, on the 15th and 16th 

 of December. These reunions, it is thought, 

 will become common with the officers of the 

 army of the late war. 



ASIA. The territory of the European gov- 

 ernments in Asia, which already embraces 

 about one-half of the entire area, is steadily 

 enlarging. The war between Russia and the 

 Khan of Bokhara, and the conquest of nearly 

 the whole territory of the latter by Russia, must 

 have taught the weak rulers of Central Asia 

 that they are powerless against their two great 

 Christian neighbors, Russia and England. Only 

 to the disagreement of these two powers is it 

 due that Khokan, Bokhara, Afghanistan, Beloo- 

 chistan, and a few other countries of Central 

 Asia, are still enumerated among the states of 



