32 



ASIA. 



The number of military convicts confined in 

 the military prison of Fort Leavenworth on 

 November 25th was 375. They are chiefly 

 occupied in the manufacture of shoes for the 

 troops. 



An order was issued by the President on 

 April 12th granting to Gen. Fitz John Porter 

 a court of inquiry into such new evidence as 

 he might offer relative to a sentence of a court- 

 martial in 1862 which dismissed him from the 

 army. 



The condition of the Union and Confederate 

 war records is stated by the Secretary of War 

 to be as follows : 



The records of the war of the rebellion, both Union 

 and Confederate, are under the charge of the Adju- 

 tant-General of the Army. The work of preparing 

 these for publication is under charge of Col. Kobert 

 N. Scott, to whose report I invite attention. The 

 work of collecting reports of battles by Union com- 

 manders, which were not originally forwarded, has 

 been unremittingly prosecuted since the close of the 



war, and a very large number has been added to the 

 files through the medium of correspondence. There 

 are yet some important reports missing, but hopes 

 are entertained of procuring them. The Confeder- 

 ate records obtained in Eichmond at the time of its 

 capture were brought here in 1865, and have been 

 carefully arranged. The agent recently appointed. 

 Gen. Marcus J. Wright, has been assiduously and 

 successfully engaged for the past five months in 

 procuring interesting papers relating to that side. 

 Through a candid and liberal understanding with 

 the Southern Historical Society, as well as with sev 

 eral other possessors of such papers, this Department 

 is daily adding to its material for a history oi the war. 

 The Department is ready to transmit to Congress a 

 considerable amount of matter systematically ar- 

 ranged so soon as specific action by Congress shall 

 enable it to do so. The appropriations heretofore 

 made have been for preparing for publication, not for 

 publishing. 



ASIA. The area and population of the dif- 

 ferent divisions of Asia were given as follows 

 in 1878 (see Benin and Wagner, " Bevolkerung 

 der Erde," v., Gotha, 1878) : 



