Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-06-23
STRENGTH OF THE ARMY.

man Of the Committee on Military Affairs in the
Senate, on the 9th instant when he said that since
October IL, 1868, the War Department has raised
or re-enlisted 600 900 men, not counting black men,
and that within the year it has put into the field
100000 men, and has spent $l25,OO0,C00 in
bounties To this was added the observation that
ut the date of his remarks Gen. Grant had reoeiv-
ed reinforcements to the number of $4,000 men,
and that the necessity of replenishing our armies
was created by the "immense losses" he had al
ready sustained and expected still to sustain before
he could enter Richmond
As we found these statements in the official
port Of the Congressional debates we could not
suspect them of being contraband, and yet we
learn from one of our city contemporaries, which
sustains an official relation to the President of the
United States that the agent OF the Associated
Press in this city was forbidden by the military
censor residing here to make these statements
part Of his daily condensed report of the doings of
Congress, on the ground, we suppose, that they
furnished valuable information to the enemy. The
motive of this suppression, if it be true that any
such censorship was exercised over the report Of
Mr. Wilson's speech, may perhaps be found in the
following outgivings of that gentleman, when, in
the course of the same debate in which he made
these statements, the following colloquy ensued:
Mr. WILSON I am not the Administrators slave
generally support their policy On some things have to
condemn them rs does the Senator, and all of US.
Mr. CONFESS fully understand that, and will simply
say that the only difference that between the hon
orabe Senator and myself these is that
times breathe little louder than he does Laughter
hn,n hIa ch.,~r n khaa
mittee inform he inform how many men it is
proposed to call for By the Government
MT WILSON do not know.
Mr. JOHNSON. That may influence my
Mr. WILSON can ascertain by to morrow morning.
Mr. JOHNSON. DO you knOto hoD many arc no1o tn
Mr. WILSON. do not and if did should not feel at
liberty to say, because has been tho policy Of the Score
tary cf War to keep aoay from people for as
he says if he should let every body know it, the enemy
would know it that he would give great deal if he
ooy knew how many they had and he supposed they
would If he knew what we had
Mr. JOHNSON. III be- makes call for specific number
of men they will find that out very soon.
Mr. WILSON They uiH find that cut but they do not
hnop the number Of in seroiee. We haze got
large force in the field, but still zoe Hant more.
If the Secretary Of War desires to keep the
number Of our troops . secret from the country,
in order that he may equally keep it secret
from the enemy, we can readily understand why
he might object to the publicity given by Mr..
army during the last year, exclusive Of black men.
For the number of black men employed in our
service as soldiers or laborers was stated by the
President in his letter to Col. Hodges, insomuch
that it is comparatively easy, with those data, to
arrive approximately, by short mathematical
= &c he
present campaign began Including new recruits,
colored troops, "one hundred days men," and
veterans enlisted in the summer and autumn Of
1861 whose three years term has not yet expired,
the total aggregate of our armies, as we have pre-
viously stated, must be considerably more than
million of men at the present time.
If tho enemy can get any encouragement from
these figures, it must result not from Mr.. Will
sons statement of the facts in the case, hut from
the inadequate successes that shall be achieved
by such an unexampled exertion of the nations
military powers And who, at the threshold of
the summers campaign, is ready to augur such a
poverty of results as shall render Mr.. Wilson's
statements q source of depression to the Loyal
States and of assurance to the enemy? We have
been constantly told that this campaign was
to result in cffectualy breaking the military power
of the instruction, and every body must admit
that if it can be broken by preponderance of ply
steal power it ought to be crushed by such force
as is now placed at the command of the War De-
partmcnt. Ii that force be only concentrated and
wisely handled, it is adequate to accomplish all
that can be accomplished by physical means but
no affiuence of physical means can atone for
in generalship, defects in strategy, or scat
tering of resources at a time when evory thing
depends upon vigor and unity Of conduct. 1t
is yet too early to speak with entire confidence
of the success of our impending operations in Vir-
gnia and Georgia, the only quarters in which our
armies are doing any thing toward the active sup
preston of the rebellion. And if these two armies
are suffering for a want of men, it must be for
some other cause than for want of troops at the
command of the War Department, when it has a
million of them subject to Its disposition, unless
indeed the "immense losses" to which Mr. Will
son refers as haying been sustained by Gen. Grant
in placing his army on the DANES river by the
overland route are much greater than the country
has been led to believe,
Our readers are aware that 1t has been proposed
to amend the CONSUMPTION law SO as to abolish the