The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-10-16
Tho Cadets md Militia Appropriate,

Tho Cadets and Militia Appropriation.
The following letter has been received by
Colonel Purcell:
"EIRGISIA MILITARY INSTITUTE,
October II, 1877.
/" Colonel John B. Purcell, Richmond, va.
"My Dear Colonel,-Some OF the Rich.
mond military are complaining very much
that the Governor has sent the cadets 200
made in the papers showing great injustice
all around.
"Instead Of having only 135 cadets we
have to-day 154, with fifteen appointees yet
to come in, and every mail brings new ap-
plications. One to-day from South Carolina.
The cadets have had no infantry arms
from the State since the close OF the war.
Some 300 Austrian rifle muskets were
bought and presented to the cadets by three
OF the alumni in 1867, and these have been
our only infantry armament since the war.
We have bought all our accoutrements.
Sour iron battery was transferred, with
the consent of the Governor, to the ar
tillery company of Staunton, leaving us only
thirty tents as our outfit since the war until
these muskets came.
II mention these things to you to rectify
these errors.
"Yours very truly,
Of. II. SMITH, Superintendent"
The Dispatch's military informant says {:
"Thc only injustice done the Virginia
Military Institute in the statement which
appeared in the Dispatch was in making
the number Of cadets 1876 instead OF 154-
an error Of 10.
"The author of the military Briefs is a
warm friend OF the Institute, and would
like to see it furnished with the very best
OF everything; but that it should be fur
nshed out OF the fund provided for the
militia is the ground Of complaint not only
with 'some Of the Richmond military but
OF the militia generally Of the State.
"The act Of Congress OF 1903, Revised
Statutes OF the United States, 1861, p. 200,
is rs follows: The annual sum OF 100000
is appropriated, to be paid out OF any money
in the treasury not otherwise appropriated,
for the purpose Of providing arms and
either by purchase or manufactured by and
on account Of the United States OF this
sum Virginia is entitled to $4,000 year.
In 1871, when the militia re0rganized in
this State, there were no arms in the State,
and they have all been provided out OF this
fund, so far rs they have been provided for
III all, w UlIt tuS ' 1hothoeeS
has been receiving $4,000 per annum from
the State, and now gets $4,000, and the
militia have received nothing from the
State. No complaint is made OF this; but
when $4,000 out OF the $4,000 Of this years
appropriation by the United States is given
to the Virginia Military Institute the militia
naturally inquire, Has not the Institute had
all the help from the State, and is it entitled
to any OF the militia fund?
"The first question is answered, and the
second seems to have force in it. II the
institute Is entitled to the militia fund, the
cadets are militiamen; but they are not
The law makes them military corps, un'
der the command Of the superintendent
and says they shall constitute the guard Of
the institution. The officers are made
part of the military OF the State by an ac
OF April, 1877, which was an old law re
pealed in 1867; but, so far as we are In
formed, the cadets are not part OF the mi
litia. We would hesitate to tell one OF tht
well-developed ones that he is a militiaman.'