u.s.a.] -A. R M and sometimes represent the Government when eases affecting the army come up in civil courts. The pay department has charge of the supply and distribution of and accounting for funds for the payment of the army, and such other financial duties as may be specially assigned to it. The staff departments above enumerated have no enlisted personnel. The quartermaster's department is charged with the duty of providing means of transportation of every character, either under contract or in kind, which may be needed in the movement of troops and material of war. It furnishes all public animals employed in the service of the army, the forage consumed by them, waggons and all articles necessary for their use, except the equipment of cavalry and artillery. It furnishes clothing, camp and garrison equipage, fuel, barracks, storehouses, and other Buildings ; constructs and repairs roads, railways, bridges ; builds and charters ships, boats, docks, and wharves needed for military purposes ; and attends to all matters connected with military operations which are not expressly assigned to some other bureau of the War Department. Subsistence, ordnance, signal, medical, and hospital stores are procured and issued by other bureaus of the War Department, but the quartermaster’s department transports them to the place of issue and provides storehouses for their preservation until consumed. The siibsistence department has charge of the purchase, inspection, storage, and issue of food supplies for troops. It has one function which, especially at isolated posts, has been found very beneficial, and which is not common to other armies. It keeps for sale at cost to officer’s and men, in addition to the ration, a large list of other stores. The ration is abundant. Its composition is fixed by the President. In order to obtain variety and meet the necessities of varying climates, such parts of the ration as are not desired are, under direction of company commanders, sold back to the subsistence department at cost, and funds are thus provided for the purchase of articles of diet not included in the ration. The men’s messes are improved through another agency, the post exchange. This has been in existence but a few years. It is practically a soldiers’ club, under the supervision of officers, in which many articles desired by the men are sold. The profits are periodically distributed among the organizations serving at the post for the improvement of the messes. The enlisted personnel of the subsistence and quartermaster’s departments consists of a number of sergeants appointed, after examination, from the line. Clerks, teamsters, labourers, &c., are furnished by temporary detail from the troops or by hire of civilians. The medical department is charged with the duties performed by the medical staff in all armies. It has charge of hospitals both at stations and in the field, of ambulances, and of hygiene. It has an enlisted personnel, as large as may be deemed necessary, in addition to the authorized strength of the army. This force is called the hospital corps, and performs all hospital service in garrison and in the field. Its non-commissioned officers, termed hospital stewards and acting hospital stewards, are appointed after examination. A knowledge of pharmacy is required. There is also a nurse corps (female) consisting of one superintendent and such number of nurses as may be needed. The surgeon-general is authorized to employ, under contract, dental surgeons, not to exceed thirty in number. The officers, in addition to their other duties, give instruction by lectures and practical demonstration on “First Aid to the Injured” to all lieutenants of the line and to such captains as may volunteer. Company officers in turn are required to give this instruction to their men four hours a month. There is thus always in every company a number of men able to supplement the work of the hospital corps in the field, or to give the first cares to the wounded in the absence of medical attendance. The signal corps is charged with the construction, repair, and operation of military telegraph lines, with the supervision of such instruction in military signalling and telegraphy as maybe prescribed by the War Department, and with the procurement, preservation, and distribution of the necessary supplies. A line officer is appointed signal officer at each military post, and supervises instruction, which must be continued until there are in each company at least 1 officer and 4 enlisted men proficient in signalling by flag, torch, and heliograph. The signal corps has an enlisted personnel of 760, of which number 350 are non-commissioned officers. The duties of the corps of engineers comprise reconnoitring and surveying for military purposes, selection of sites and formation of plans and estimates for military defences, construction and repair of fortifications and their accessories, planning and superintending of defensive or olfensive works of troops in the field, examination of routes of communications for supplies and for military movements, and construction of military roads and bridges, execution of river and harbour improvements assigned to it, and such other duties as the President may order. There are three battalions of engineer troops. They form a part of the line of the army, and are officered by officers of the engineer corps assigned temporarily. The principal engineer station is Willets Point, New York Harbour, where there is an engineer school of instruction. A field officer of engineers
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commands the station and school. The captains, in addition to performing the routine duties of a military post, act as instructors. Lieutenants of engineers, after serving for about a year after graduating at West Point, are assigned to companies, and constitute the class. The course lasts two years, and comprises instruction supplementary to that given at West Point, where the same subjects are studied, in military and civil (including electrical) engineering, and in astronomical work. The ordnance department is charged with the duty of procuring, by purchase or manufacture, and distributing the necessary ordnance and ordnance supplies for the Government, and establishes and maintains arsenals and depots for their manufacture and safekeeping. Infantry small-arms, carbines, swords, sabres, horse equipments, field-gun carriages, and most of the accoutrements, such as haversacks, knapsacks, canteens, &c., are manufactured at the various arsenals. Cannon of all caliBres are constructed by the ordnance department, the rough forgings being furnished by private firms. Powder is purchased, but the cartridges are made at an arsenal. Revolvers are purchased. Most of the sea-coast gun-carriages and sea-coast mortars are made by private firms. The ordnance department has a proving ground at Sandy Hook, New York Harbour, where experiments are made and guns are tested. The record and pension office has but two officers. It has in charge theirecords of all volunteers, not only of those who served in the war with Spain, but in former wars. The chaplains are of various religious denominations. One is allowed to each regiment of infantry and cavalry, and twelve to the artillery corps. An officer of engineers or ordnance, or of the adjutant-general’s, inspector-general’s, judge-advocate-general’s, quartermaster’s, or subsistence department, or of the signal corps, though eligible to command according to his rank, shall not assume command of troops unless put on duty under orders which specially so direct by authority of the President. An officer of the pay or medical department cannot exercise command except in his own department, but by virtue of his commission he may command all enlisted men like other commissioned officers. When the United States adopted a policy of liberal appropriations for sea-coast defence, the need was felt of a single body of experts to decide upon what was needed and how the money should be spent. Congress accordingly passed a law creating a board of ordnance and fortification whose duty it was “to make all needful and proper purchases, experiments, and tests to ascertain, with a view to tBeir utilization by the Government, the most effective guns, small - arms, cartridges, projectiles, fuses, explosives, torpedoes, armour-plates, and other implements and engines of war.” The membership of this board comprises the lieutenant-general commanding the army (who is its president), one officer each from the corps of engineers and the ordnance department, two from the artillery, and one civilian. An officer of the army is detailed as recorder of the board. By the Act of 2nd February 1901 each regiment of cavalry consists of 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant-colonel, 3 majors, 15 captains, 15 first lieutenants, and 15 second lieutenants ; 2 veterinarians, 1 sergeant-major, 1 quartermaster-sergeant, 1 commissary-sergeant, 3 squadron sergeants-major, 2 colour-sergeants, 1 band, and 12 troops organized into 3 squadrons of 4 troops each. Each troop of cavalry consists of 1 captain, 1 first lieutenant, 1 second lieutenant, 1 first sergeant, 1 quartermaster - sergeant, 6 sergeants, 6 corporals, 2 cooks, 2 farriers and blacksmiths, 1 saddler, 1 wagoner, 2 trumpeters, and 43 privates. Each regiment of infantry consists of 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant - colonel, 3 majors, 15 captains, 15 first lieutenants, and 15 second lieutenants ; 1 sergeantmajoi’, 1 quartermaster-sergeant, 1 commissary-sergeant, 3 battalion sergeants-major, 2 colour - sergeants, 1 band, and 12 companies, organized into 3 battalions of 4 companies each. Each infantry company consists of 1 captain, 1 first lieutenant, 1 second lieutenant, 1 first sergeant, 1 quartermaster-sergeant, 4 sergeants, six corporals, 2 cooks, 2 musicians, 1 artificer, and 48 privates. The regimental organization of the artillery arm of the United States army is discontinued, and that arm is constituted and designated as tfie artillery corps. It comprises 2 branches, the coast artillery and the field artillery. The coast artillery is defined as that portion charged with the care and use of the fixed and movable elements of land and coast fortifications, including the submarine mine and torpedo defences ; and the field artillery as that portion accompanying an army in the field, and including field and light artillery proper, horse artillery, siege artillery, mountain artillery, and also machine-gun batteries. All officers of artillery are on one list, in respect to promotion, according to seniority in their several grades, and are assigned to coast or to field artillery according to their special aptitude for the respective services. The artillery corps consists of a chief of artillery, selected and detailed by the President from the colonels of artillery, to serve on the staff of the general officer commanding the army, and his duties are prescribed by the Secretary of War ; 14 colonels, 1 of whom, shall be the chief of artillery ; 13 lieutenant-colonels, 39 majors, 195 captains, 195 first lieutenants, 195 second lieutenants, 2-1
