54 



ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Under the act appropriating $1,000,000 for 

 placing head-stones at the graves of soldiers 

 interred in the national military cemeteries, 

 contracts have been made for the whole work, 

 which is now in progress. There are 76 na- 

 tional cemeteries, in which are interred 139,962 

 unknown, and 162,079 known soldiers. 



Under the Chief of Engineers, the works for 

 the defense of the coast have been prosecuted 

 with vigor, and as rapidly as the appropria- 

 tions would permit ; and in several of the im- 

 portant harbors the works are approaching 

 completion. Generally, the works are modi- 

 fications of existing defenses, constructed for 

 less powerful armaments than those now used. 

 The rapid advances that have been made in 

 power of modern ordnance render it essential, 

 in the opinion of the Secretary of "War, that 

 these works should be pushed forward to com- 

 pletion, and properly armed. 



The survey of the lakes has been carried on 

 during the year with its accustomed energy 

 and success. The connection of the triangula- 

 tion of Lakes Superior and Michigan, the in- 

 shore and off-shore hydrography and topog- 

 raphy, have been finished ; the Wisconsin 

 triangulation has been carried southward to 

 the vicinity of Chicago, and the Keweenaw 

 base has been measured. The surveys of the 

 Detroit River and River St. Lawrence, from 

 the forty-fifth parallel, have been completed, 

 and a map of the lower half of the former has 

 been published ; the determination of several 

 points in the interior of Michigan has been 

 made in aid of surveys by the State ; the sur- 

 vey of Lake Ontario has been commenced, 

 and much of the field-work has been reduced. 

 The preparation of Chart No. 1 of the St. Law- 

 rence, of Sandusky Harbor, and of the mouth 

 ' of the Detroit River, has been completed, 

 and put into the hands of the engravers. 

 It has been stated that a single survey made 

 last year, viz., the survey of the mouth of the 

 Detroit River, will save from $50,000 to $100,- 

 000 to commerce this year. 



The geographical surveys and explorations 

 west of the 100th meridian in California, Ne- 

 vada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, 

 Wyoming, and Montana, have been carried on 

 successfully. At the commencement of the fis- 

 cal year the three main parties engaged in this 

 work had left their rendezvous at Salt Lake, 

 Utah, Denver, Colorado, and Santa F6, New 

 Mexico. They moved south into Arizona, con- 

 necting with the work of former years, and 

 covering during the surveying season about 

 75,000 square miles of territory. In addition 

 to its topographical work proper, the survey 

 embraced the fixing of many points astronom- 

 ically,, and investigations in geology, mineral- 

 ogy, natural history, and the natural resources 

 of the country traversed. It is expected that 

 a large part of the results of this survey will 

 be ready for the press during the coming year. 

 Among the more 'important results accom- 

 plished by the corps of engineers during the 



year may be mentioned the discovery of a new 

 wagon-route from the line of the Union Pacific 

 Railway to the Yellowstone Park and Mon- 

 tana ; a reconnoissance in the country of the 

 Ute tribe of Indians ; the construction of a 

 wagon-road from Santa F6 to Taos, New Mex- 

 ico ; and a survey of the Black Hills of Dakota 

 by the engineer officer attached to the military 

 expedition which was sent into that interesting 

 country during the summer of 1874. 



The board of ordnance officers appointed to 

 consider the expediency of reducing the num- 

 ber of arsenals and the construction of a grand 

 arsenal on the Atlantic seaboard, have submit- 

 ted a report, which " strongly recommends the 

 retention of the Springfield Armory and the 

 Frankford Arsenal, and the establishment of a 

 grand arsenal in the vicinity of New York City 

 for manufacturing purposes ; retaining also the 

 Indianapolis Arsenal, Indiana ; Kennebec Ar- 

 senal, Maine ; Fortress Monroe Arsenal, Virgi- 

 nia ; and Augusta Arsenal, Georgia, as places for 

 storage and repair. It recommends the sale of 

 the Alleghany, Columbus, Detroit, Pikesville, 

 Watervliet, Watertown, and Washington Ar- 

 senals, the sales to be made as rapidly as cir- 

 cumstances will permit, the proceeds to be de- 

 voted to the purchase of a site and the erection 

 of buildings for the grand arsenal. These 

 seemingly large reductions by sale will, when 

 accomplished, leave thirteen arsenals and the 

 armory ; and all this can be effected from the 

 sales of arsenals, and without the expenditure 

 of a dollar out of the national Treasury." 



The work done by the Signal-Office has been 

 of the highest value to the agricultural and 

 commercial interests of the country, as well as 

 to the cause of science. 



_ During the year twenty-three stations of observa- 

 tion have been added to those from which reports 

 are deemed necessary to enable proper warnings to 

 be given of the approach and force of storms and of 

 other meteoric changes for the benefit of agricultural 

 and commercial interests. The daily exchange of 

 telegraphic reports with the Dominion of Canada 

 has been maintained, and warnings of threatened 

 danger have been regularly sent, to be displayed at 

 the ports of the Dominion. A series of daily tele- 

 graphic reports has' been received from stations in 

 the West Indies, extending from Cuba, by Jamaica, 

 to Barbadoes and the Windward Islands. The most 

 eastern station thus established, and in the course 

 of possible cyclones, lies 2.300 miles to the south- 

 ward and eastward of Washington. The issue of the 

 official deductions had at the office of the Signal- 

 Officer, from the reports there received, has contin- 

 ued during the year. A minute examination of these 

 deductions, and a comparison with the meteoric 

 changes afterward occurring within the time and 

 within the .district to which each has had reference, 

 have given the average percentage of 84.4 as verified. 

 With a more scrutini/ing form of analysis the per- 

 centages have improved upon those of the preced 

 ing year. The wide diffusion given these reports 

 may be judged from the fact that they appear in al- 

 most every newspaper published daily in the United 

 States. 



The display of cautionary day and night signals 

 upon the lakes, and at the great ports of the United 

 States, upon the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, has beeft 

 made systematically on occasions of supposed es- 

 pecial danger at forty-two different stations, Bea and 



