Morning journal and courier., 1880-11-16
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL.
The Army-GeneraI Sherman's Annual Report-Suggestions for an Increase o Our Military Forces.

The Army-GeneraI Sherman's Annual | Report-Suggestionsf for Increase o1 Our Military Forces.
 WASHINGTON, Nov. 15.-The annual re-
 port of General Sherman to the Secretary of | War is given to the public to-day. After l calling attention to the various subordinate | reports, General Sherman says:
 The divisions and departments into which 1 the territory of the United States is divided remains the same as last year, and changes have occurred in the commanding generals thereof. The organization of the army pro. v1des for II general officers, 555 officers and 1,286 enlisted men for the staff 1,989 off cers and 24, PA enlisted men for the line Of these latter 694 detailed as clerks or re- crults unassigned to regiments, reducing the possible force for military service to g, ,52O enlisted men. The actual force must at all
 times be kept below that figure and there | must always be allowed for ''sick," ''de- tached services,'' and other unavoidable causes at least ten per centum, reducing the available force to about 10000 enlisted men. 1 therefore agree with General Sheri. dan that the army is too small in enlisted men to fulfill the heavy duties now imposed on it and is overworked. therefore renew my recommendation of last year that Con- gress be asked to give twenty-five thousand enlisted men specifically to the troops of the
 line of the army and to make separate pro-
 visions for the attachments t'of ordnance
 ment ;' engineer battalion hospital stew
 Point detachments, :" detailed clerks,n etc, in the same manner as has been done Tor the
 signal corps.
 In this connection I will venture to call
 your attention to the fact that the Revised
 Statutes, Edition of 1878, section l, 115, chap
 ter 1, defining the organization of the army. limits it's strength to s'rot more than thirty ] thousand enlisted m 'b hI1f propriation bills by provisos have limited ex-
 pend1tures to twenty-five thousand enlisted
 men, and that number is the least possible at
 which we can maintain the present organiza-
 t1on of forty regiments in anything like good
 order, discipline and economy and I infer
 this end can be reached by simply emitting
 the provisions in the next appropriation bill
 The combatant force remains to-day the same that It was last year, composed of ten regi- ments of cavalry, five of artillery and twenty i've of infantry but under the proviso s'lim- 1t" of 25, GOO enlisted men, the companies are too small for proper discipline or economical serV1ce, and am convinced that the propos- ed increase of enlisted men will double the efficiency of the army, and hardly be felt in the annual expenditures.
 In regard to our sea coast defenses General Sherman says: '"They are super1uous We now have fifty millions of people, and the idea of any hostile force landing on our coast is simply preposterous Yet our great com mercial ports should be made so safe that even an apprehension of danger would not be felt. Portland, Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia Hampton Roads, Port Royal, Key West, Pensacola, San Diego. San Francisco and Port Townsend should all be properly fortified and garrisoned All minor forts should be sold or abandoned
 In reference to prejudice on account of color among cadets he says: ''The prejudice of race lssa most difficult thing to contend against. There is no more such prejudice at West Point than.n the community atIarge, and the practice of equality at West Point is in advance of the rest of the country. To dis criminate in favor of colored cadet by rea- son of his color is as much violation of the Fourteenth amendment as to discriminate against him. The officers of the military academy have endeavored to be impartial General Sherman says in his opinion the re- qulrement that all enlisted men of the Ninth and Tenth cavalry and of the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-ffth infantry should be colored men while the officers are white is not con- slstent with the amendment referred to. All men should be enlisted who are qualified and assigned to regiments regardless of color or previous condition. Such has been the law and the usage in the navy for ssyears, and the army would soon grow accustomed to it.
 The annual reports of Quartermaster Gen eral Meigs, Inspector General Marcev Con- missary General MacFeely, Judge Advocate General Dunn, Paymaster General Brown. Surgeon General Barnes and Colonel Scott, in charge of the publication of the records of the rebellion, have been submitted to the Sec retary of War. They give detailed and mi mute account of the work during the last fiscal year, but contain no recommendations of general interest other than they have made in previous reports and now reneat