Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1856-01-22
REPORT OF THE OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
OF THE ARMY.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
New York, Nov. 81, 1885

New York, Nov. III, 1855.
The undersigned, the immediate comman-
der of the army, being charged by General
Regulations" with all shat regards discipline
and military control" deems it his duty, &C
cording to long continued usage, to submit an
nually, through the War Department, such
views and suggestions as may seem likely to
increase, without extravaganza in cost (having
regard to numbers,) the national worth, the
prowess, and efficiency of our military estab-
lishment.
In respect to the condition of our enlisted
men, Tor the rank and file of the army recent
acts OF Congress charging their monthly pay,
and giving them, through the grade of sergeant,
eligibility to commissions, leave, perhaps, no
want but time to work out every expected and
almost every desirable amclioration. And the
addition of the four new regiments will, it is
hoped, give us adequate numbers to subdue the
Indians IN actual hostility, and afford reasona-
bic protection to every frontier against their
future depredations
An increase of general officers is want
very sensibly felt throughout the army, and /
beg to suggest one additional major general
and two additional brigadier generals, to make,
with the two brigadiers Of the line already in
commission, five commanders for the geogra-
phical departments of the army, with six other
brigadier generals for chiefs of the Adiutant
Generals Department, the corps of engineers,
the corps of typographical engineers, the Ord.
nance Department, the Commissariat of Sub
sisence, and the pay department, respectively.
Justice, symmetry, and the good of the service,
appear equally to demand these additions,
Several recent attempts have been made in
Congress to improve the efficiency of the body
Of commissioned officers generally by retired
list, as well as by augmented compensation.
In the opinion of the undersigned both are
measures of demonstrabe necessity.
Some forty or fifty officers, mostly in the
higher commissions, rendered non-effective by
the infirmites of age, by wounds or chronic
diseases, now press downwards into lethargy
and then despair; thrice the number of juniors
are signing for the increased rank, which
would, before they are too old, increase the
field of distinguished usefulness How soon
the undersigned may himself be. considered
one of the superannuated he knows not; but,
while any vigor remains, he will not cease to
urge remedy for the great evil in question.
The other ameoration, affecting the COM
missioned officers of the army, SO much needed
from the enhanced cost of all the necessaries
and comforts of life, is corresponding in
crease OF compensation, such as has already
been accorded to our rank and file. AS this
general proposition will hardly be disputed
anywhere, the mode and scale of increase
alone remains to be suggested.
Fixed salaries, according to rank would
generally, by persons in civil life, be applied to
military officers; but the experience of all
armies, including our own, has made the sys-
tenn OF en'otuments or Allowances, (rations, for
age, &c. graduated according to rank and cir
cumstances, in addition to fixed pay for each
grade, universal, and to tamper with such ex-
perience would seem unwise. Leaving for the
moment the scale of pay proper and every
allowance, except one, as established the I'M
dersigned will first seek to find what approach
to reasonable increase of compensation may
be made under the head Of rations alone, by
making the number cumulative, according TO
the length of each officers service, and putting
up the Communication to what has always been
allowed to naval ofhcers-twenty.fve cents a
ration.
The cumulative principle was first adopted
IN the act of June 80, 1884, section 3, in behalf
of medical officers only and next in the act of
July 5, 1888, section 10, in these words:
Every commissioned officer of the line or
staff, exclusive of general officers, shall be en-
titled to receive one additional ration per diem
for every five years he may have served or shall
oNi'S ~ INC Vi thc Culttu DtdlcS. ITO-
Uided, That, in certain cases, where officers are
entitled to receive double rations, the addi-
tional one allowed in this section shall not be
included in the number to be doubled"
The undersigned cannot resist the temptation
to say in this place, that he wrote the two
sections in question, and followed up each be-
fore Congress, in person and by letter, to final
success; and that the exclusion Of general
officers" in the second act was, in the way of
compromise, offered by him after he had fully
discussed the subject before the Military Com
mittee Of the House. He now respectfully
suggests the change of single word in the
section just quoted, so that "every flee years"
may, for the future, be made to read "every
three years"
To illustrate the proposed increase of COM
pensation, taking the four middle classes Of
commissioned oiiicers-say Of the artillery and
infantry-this table ia suhmitted.