656
ARMIES
over 2,800,000 men, organized into volunteer regiments bearing State designations. The officers, except general and staff officers, were appointed by the Governors of the respective States. The maximum authorized strength of the regular army never, during the war, exceeded 40,000 men; and the number in the field, especially towards the close of the war, was very much less. The States, in order to obtain men to fill their quotas, offered liberal bounties to induce men to enlist, and it therefore became very difficult to obtain recruits for the regular army, for which no bounties were given. The regular regiments accordingly dwindled away to skeletons. The number of officers present was also much reduced, since many of them, while retaining their regular commissions, held higher rank in the volunteer army. After the close of the Civil War the volunteers were mustered out; and by the Act of Congress of 28th July 1866 the line of the army was made to consist of 10 regiments of cavalry of 12 troops each, 5 regiments of artillery of 12 batteries each, and 45 regiments of infantry of 10 companies each. The maximum enlisted strength was 51,605. The Act of 3rd March 1869 reduced the number of infantry regiments to 25 and the enlisted strength of the army to 35,036. This was still further reduced, without change in organization, to 32,788 in 1870 and to 25,000 in 1874. The latter number remained the maximum for twenty-four years. The number allotted to a regiment of cavalry, artillery, or infantry was published in orders, and was changed from time to time to meet the needs of the service. In March 1898 the artillery was increased by 2 regiments, and in April 2 companies were added to each infantry regiment, giving it 3 battalions of 4 companies each. The strength of batteries, troops, and companies was increased, the maximum enlisted strength reached during 1898 being over 63,000. A volunteer army was also organized. Of this army, 3 regiments of engineer troops, 3 of cavalry, and 10 of infantry were United States volunteers, all the officers being commissioned by the President. The other organizations came from the States, the officers being appointed by the respective Governors. As fast as they were organized and filled up, they were mustered into the service of the United States. The total number furnished for the war with Spain was 10,017 officers and 213,218 enlisted men. All general and staff officers were appointed by the President. Three hundred and eighty-seven officers of the regular army received volunteer commissions. After the conclusion of hostilities with Spain, the mustering out of the volunteers was begun, and by June 1899 all the volunteers, except those, in the Philippines, were out of the service. The latter, as well as those serving elsewhere, having enlisted only for the war, were brought home and mustered out as soon as practicable. The Act of 2nd March 1899 added 2 batteries to each regiment of artillery. On 2nd February 1901 Congress passed a Bill providing that the regular army, including existing organizations, should consist of 15 regiments of cavalry, a corps of artillery, 30 regiments of infantry, 1 lieutenant-general, 6 major-generals, 15 brigadier-generals, an adjutant-general’s department, an inspector-general’s department, a judge-advocate-general’s department, a quartermaster’s department, a subsistence department, a medical department, a pay department, a corps of engineers, an ordnance department, a signal corps, the officers of the record and pension office, the chaplains, the officers and enlisted men of the army on the retired list, the professors, corps of cadets, the army detachments and band at the United States Military Academy, Indian scouts as now authorized by law, and such other officers and enlisted men as might be thereinafter provided for.
[tJ.S.A.
The head of the military establishment is the Secretary of War, a member of the Cabinet. The supply, payment, and recruitment of the army, and the direction of the expenditure of the appropriations for its support, are by law entrusted to him. He exercises control through the bureaus of the War Department. The lieutenant-general commands the army, but all the supply departments are independent of him, and are directly under the Secretary. Promotion to the grade of brigadier-general is by selection, generally, but not necessarily, from the list of colonels. Promotion from brigadier- to major-general, and from major-general to lieutenant-general, is also by selection, though the senior is usually selected. The officers of the various staff departments had previously been permanent. Each had as its head a brigadier-general, selected from the officers of the particular department or corps. Promotion to colonel was by seniority in the department or corps. The Act of 2nd February 1901 provided that, so long as there should remain any officers holding permanent appointments in the adjutant - general’s department, the inspector-general’s department, the quartermaster’s department, the subsistence department, the pay department, the ordnance department, and the signal corps, they should be promoted, according to seniority, in the several grades, and whenever a vacancy should thereafter occur, it should be filled by detail from the same grade in the line of the army, the length of the detail being four years. Any such officer, below the rank of lieutenant-colonel, who shall have served four years in the staff, is not again eligible for detail until he shall have served two years in the line. When a vacancy occurs in the position of chief of any staff corps or department, the President may appoint to such vacancy an officer of the army at large, not below the rank of lieutenant - colonel, and such officer, while holding said position, shall have the rank, pay, and allowances formerly provided for the chief of the corps or department. Appointments to the lowest grade in the judge-advocate’s department are made from the army or from civil life; in the engineer corps, from the Military Academy at West Point, or by transfer of lieutenants of the line after examination; in the medical department, from civil life. The adjutant-general’s department is the bureau of orders and records of the army. Orders and instructions emanating from the War Department or army headquarters, and all general regulations, are communicated to troops and individuals in the military service through the adjutant-general. His office is the repository for the records of the War Department which relate to the personnel of the permanent military establishment and the militia in the service of the United States, to the military history of every commissioned officer and soldier thereof, and to the movements and operation of troops. The adjutant-general is charged, under the direction of the Secretary of War, with the management of the recruiting service, the collection and classification of military information in regard to the United States and foreign countries, the preparation of instructions to officers detailed to visit encampments of militia, and the digesting, arranging, and preserving of their reports. The sphere of inquiry of the inspector-general's department includes every branch of military affairs except when specially limited in regulations or orders. Inspectors-general and acting inspectorsgeneral exercise a comprehensive and general observation within their respective districts over all that pertains to the efficiency of the army, the condition and state of supplies of all kinds of arms and equipments, the expenditure of public property and monies, the condition of accounts of all disbursing officers of every branch of the service, and the conduct, discipline, and efficiency of officers and troops ; and they report with strict impartiality in regard to all irregularities that may be discovered. They make such suggestions as may appear to them practicable for the cure of any defect that may come under their observation. The judgeadvocate-general’s department is the bureau of military justice. The judge-advocate-general is the custodian of the records of all general courts-martial, courts of inquiry, and military commissions, and of all papers relating to the title of lands under the control of the War Department. The officers of this department render opinions upon legal questions when called upon by proper authority. They act as prosecutors in important military trials,
