The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-07
Troops of the Regular Army to BE
AssimiIated with Volunteers
wherever Found Practicable.
WHEELER AND LEE SWORN IN
THEODORE ROOSEVELT MUSTERED
IN AS LIEUTENANT COLONEL.
Russell b. Harrison and John A. LO-
gan to BE Honored-TranspOrts at
Tampa Ready for Invaders.

WASHINGTON, May 6.--The following
general order providing for the disposition
of the regular and volunteer armies into
seven army corps was issued at the War
Department to-day:
by direction of the President, seven
army corps, comprising both the regular
and the volunteer branches of the army, are
hereby constituted. They will be numbered
consecutively from one to seven. Their sew
eral headquarters and locations thereof, as
well as the generals appointed to command
them, will be announced in orders here
after"
This announcement is expected to be fol-
lowed promptly by the assignments of the
major generals who will command the re-
spective corps The appointments of the
division and brigade commanders are to be
made public by the War Department after
consultations with the President and the
corps commanders. 1t was said at the de-
partment to-day that no definite outlines
of the territory to be covered by each of
the general corps divisions had yet been de-
termined. There are many matters of de-
tail which remain TO be adjusted before
conclusion on this subject can be reached.
1t is said not to be unlikely that wherever
available the troops of the regular army
will be assimilated with those of the vclun-
teers, thus giving the latter the benefit of
the experience of the regulars. Provision is
made in the volunteer army act for the ap-
pointment Of the officers who are to COM
pose the stats of corps, division and
brigade commanders. The President has
the option of appointing these officers from
civil life or he may assign to such places
officers from the regular army or from the
militia in the service of the United States.
Naturally, 1t is expected that the President
will consult with the commanders in many
instances as to the members composing
their stats. The appointments to be made
under the volunteer act number in all about
three hundred To-day list of thirty APP
pointments under the law was made at the
War Department, and they will be sent to
the Senate soon by the President. Informa-
ton received at Adjutant General Corbins
Office indicates that between six and seven
thousand men had been examined and found
qualified for service in the volunteer army.
An interesting question has arisen at the
War Department in connection with the APP
pointments to military places in the vol
unteer army of persons who now occupy
federal positions. 1t comes up particularly
with reference to Assistant Secretary
Roosevelt, Consul General Lee and Repre-
sentative Wheeler, of Alabama. The ju-
dicial authorities of the War Department
say that when a person holding civil office
returns 10 the duties thereof, after having
been sworn into the military service, he
ceases to be an officer of the army. They
base their contention on Section 1922 of the
Revised Statutes, which reads as follows:
mo officer of the army the active list
shall hold any civil office, whether by cleo
ton or appointment, and every such officer
who accepts or exercises the functions or
a civil office shall thereby cease to be an
officer of the army, and his commission
shall be thereby vacated"
The purpose of this statute said one Of
fetal to-day, is to make the military al
ways subordinate to the civil branch OF the
government, which is the custom generally
among the English-speaking people. The
same authority pointed out that persons
holding offices in the States cannot hold Of
fetal positions in the volunteer army, al
though there is nothing to prevent their en-
listment as privates, who, in the general ac-
ceptance of the term, are not regarded as
officers.
1t is generally understood that Fort
Never, Va; Atlanta, Ga; Chickamauga,
Tenn: Richmond, Va, and Long Island,
N Y, have been virtually selected as places
for the mobilization of the volunteer army
Fighting Joe" Wheeler was the first of
the major generals of the volunteer army
70 be mustered in. The oath of office was
administered to him in the office OF the
chief of the War Department at noon to-
dav by Mr. A. n. Thompson, assistant u
the chief clerk General Wheeler was nor
only the first major general to be mustered
into the volunteer army but he was also the
first ex-Confederate officer to receive
commission in the military service of the
United States Half an hour later General
Fitzhugh Lee formally took the oath of
office. Theodore Roosevelt was mustered
in as lieutenant colonel to-day, Adjutant
General Corbin administering the oath.
1t is said that John A. Logan, son of Gen.
eral Logan and Russell b. Harrison, son
of ex-President Harrison, will be appointed
colonies in the volunteer army and assigned
TO duty on the staff of corps commanders.
The thirty-one men recruited here to-day
as cayalrymen in the troop of which Theo-
dore Roosevelt is lieutenant colonel, will
leave here at $40 tomorrow afternoon over
the Baltimore Il Ohio for San Antonio,
Tex. where the regiment is to rendezvous.
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THE GARNET MEETING