PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



699 



tions have been put into execution for tho sj 

 payment of bounty, pay, etc., due colored soldiers', 

 properly coming under that bureau. All war ac- 

 counts, for money and property, prior to 1871, have 

 been examined, and transmitted to the Treasury for 

 final settlement. 



During the fiscal year there has been paid for 

 transportation on railroads $1,300,000, of which 

 $800,857 was over the Pacific railroads; for trans- 

 portation by water, $626,373.52, and by stage, $48,- 

 975.84; for the purchase of transportation animals, 

 wagons, hire of teamsters, etc., $924,650.64. 



About $370,000 have been collected from Southern 

 railroads during the year, leaving about $4,000,000 

 still due. 



The Quartermaster has examined, and transmitted 

 to the accounting officers for settlement, $367,172.72 

 of claims, by- loyal citizens, for quartermasters' stores 

 taken during the war. 



Subsistence supplies to the amount of $89,048.12 

 have been issued to Indians. 



The annual average mean strength of the Army 

 was 24,101 white, and 2,494 colored soldiers. Tho 

 total deaths for the year reported, were 367 white 

 and 54 colored. 



The distribution of the " Medical and Surgical 

 History of the War" is yet to be ordered by Con- 

 gress. 



There exists an absolute necessity for a medical 

 corps of the full number, established by act of Con- 

 gress of July 28, 1866; there being now fifty-nine 

 vacancies, and the number of successful candidates 

 rarely exceeds eight or ten in any one year. 



The river ana harbor improvements have been 

 carried on with energy and economy. Though many 

 are only partially completed, the results have saved 

 to commerce many times the amount expended. The 

 increase of commerce, with greater depth of chan- 

 nels, greater security in navigation, ana the saving 

 of time, adds millions to the wealth of the country, 

 and increases the resources of the Government. 



The bridge across the Mississippi River at Eock 

 Island has been completed, and the proper site has 

 been determined upon for the bridge at La Crosse. 



The able and exhaustive report made by the com- 

 mission appointed to investigate the Sutro Tunnel 

 has been transmitted to Congress.. 



The observations and reports of the Signal-Office 

 have been continued. Stations have been main- 

 tained ^ at each of the principal lake, seaport, and 

 river cities. Ten additional stations have been es- 

 tablished in the United States, and arrangements 

 have been made for an exchange of reports with 

 Canada, and a similar exchange of observations is 

 contemplated with the West India Islands. 



The favorable attention of Congress is invited to 

 the following recommendation of the Secretary of 

 War: 



A discontinuance of the appointment of extra lieu- 

 tenants to serve as adjutants and quartermasters; 

 the adoption of a code providing specific penalties 

 for well-defined offences, so that the inequality of 

 sentences adjudged by courts-martial may be ad- 

 justed : the consolidation of accounts under which 

 expenditures are made, as a measure of economy ; a 

 reappropriation of the money for the construction 

 of a depot at San Antonio, the title to the site being 

 now perfected ; a special act placing the cemetery at 

 the city of Mexico on the same basis as other nation- 

 al cemeteries ; authority to purchase sites for mili- 

 tary posts in Texas; the appointment of commissary 

 sergeants from non-commissioned officers, as a meas- 

 ure for securing the better care and protection of 

 supplies ; an appropriation for the publication of the 

 catalogue and tables of the anatomical section of the 

 Army Medical Museum ; a reappropriation of the 

 amount for the manufacture of breech-loading arms, 

 should the selection be so delayed by the board of 

 officers as to leave the former appropriation unex- 

 pended at the close of the fiscal year; the sale of 

 such arsenals east of the Mississippi as can be 



spared, and the proceeds applied to the establish- 

 ment of one large arsenal of construction and repair 

 upon the Atlantic coast, and the purchase of a suit- 

 able site for a proving and experimental ground for 

 heavy ordnance ; the abrogation of laws which de- 

 prive inventors in the United States service from 

 deriving any benefit from their inventions ; the re- 

 peal of the law prohibiting promotions in the staff- 

 corps ; a continuance of the work upon coast de- 

 fences ; the repeal of the seventh section of the act 

 of July 13, 1866, taking from engineer soldiers the 

 per diem granted to other troops; a limitation of 

 time for presentation of old war claims for subsist- 

 ence supplies under act of July 4. 1864 ; and a modi- 

 fication in the mode of the selection of cadets for the 

 Military Academy, in order to enhance the useful- 

 ness of the Academy, which is impaired by reason 

 of the large amount of time necessarily expended in 

 giving new cadets a thorough knowledge ot the more 

 elementary branches of learning which they should 

 acquire before entering the Academy. Also an ap- 

 propriation for philosophical apparatus and an in- 

 crease in the numbers and pay of the Military 

 Academy band. 



The attention of Congress will be called, during 

 the present session, to various enterprises for the 

 more certain and cheaper transportation of the con- 

 stantly-increasing surplus of Western and South- 

 ern products to the Atlantic seaboard. The sub- 

 ject is one that will force itself upon the legislative 

 branch of the Government sooner or later, and I sug- 

 gest, therefore, that immediate steps be taken to gam 

 all available information to insure equitable and just 

 legislation. 



One route to connect the Mississippi Valley with 

 the Atlantic at Charleston, S. C., and Savannah, 

 Ga., by water, by the way of the Ohio and Tennes- 

 see Rivers, and canals and slack-water navigation to 

 the Savannah and Ocmulgee Rivers, has been sur- 

 veyed, and report made by an accomplished engi- 

 neer officer of the Army. Second and third, new 

 routes will be proposed for the consideration of 

 Congress ; namely, by an extension of the Kanawha 

 & James River Canal to the Ohio, and by exten- 

 sion of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. 



I am not prepared to recommend Government aid 

 to these or other enterprises, until it is clearly 

 shown that they are not only of national interest, but 

 that, when completed, they will be of a value com- 

 mensurate with their cost. 



That production increases more rapidly than the 

 means of transportation in our country, has been 

 demonstrated by past experience. That the unprece- 

 dented growth in population and products of the 

 whole country will require additional facilities, and 

 cheaper ones, for the more bulky articles of com- 

 merce to reach tide-water, and a market will be de- 

 manded in the near future, is equally demonstrable. 

 I would therefore suggest either a committee or a 

 commission to be authorized to consider this whole 



auestion, and to report to Congress at some future 

 ay for its better guidance in legislating on this im- 

 portant subject. 



The railroads of the country have been rapidly ex- 

 tended during the last few years to meet the grow- 

 ing demands of producers, and reflect much credit 

 upon the capitalists and managers engaged in their 

 construction. 



In addition to these, a project to facilitate com- 

 merce by the building of a ship-canal around Niag- 

 ara Falls, on the United States side, which has been 

 agitated for many years, will, no doubt, be called to 

 your attention at this session. 



Looking to the great future growth of the country, 

 and the increasing demands of commerce, it might 

 be well, while on this subject, not only to have ex- 

 amined and reported upon the various practicable 

 routes for connecting the Mississippi with tide-water 

 on the Atlantic, but the feasibility of an almost con- 

 tinuous land-locked navigation from Maine to the 

 Gulf of Mexico. Such a route along our coast would 



