The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-29
THE VOLUNTEER ARMY.
War Department Preparing for It's
Organization and Equipment.

Organization and Equipment.
WASHINGTON, April 2S-Every en-
deavor is being put forward by the War
Department to organize the volunteer army
and increase the regular army to its full
war strength, measures which require a
vast amount Of detailed and laborious work.
1t is the confident expectation of the Off
Gals that rapid progress will be made with
this work and that in the course of sew
eral weeks affairs will have so shaped them
selves that the volunteers and regulars will
be in fairly good organized condition-al-
most if not ready for their mobilization at
the more central points prior to their active
work in the field Notwithstanding that the
apportonment of troops among the States
and the designation of their rendezvous
Were made after careful consideration, eff
forts to have them changed are still being
made, and Secretary Alger and Adjutant
General Corbin were to-day again busy con-
sidering applications in this direction The
case of the Pennsylvania troops, which gave
the department more trouble than any other,
has been adjusted in manner which the
officials hope will satisfy the guardsmen of
that State. Several changes in the State
rendezvous were made by Secretary Alger
on urgent representations Of the State exec
At General "Miless Office there was a
string of callers that kept him busy all day,
the most important being General Shafter,
commanding the brigade of troops at New
Orleans, and his adjutant, Colonel Babcock:
If any orders have been issued to General
Shafter they are withheld from publication.
Senior Quesada, representing the Cuban le-
cation here, also called.
mastering rolls of the companies of the
volunteer army have been prepared IN the
War Department and sent to the othcers
who have been detailed to formally induct
the State troops INTO me service OF the ma
tional government. With few modlflcations
they are the same as those used In the late
war. The question OF arms and other equip
ments for the volunteers us now receiving
the attention of the ordnance office and
the quartermaster generals department.
AS soon as information is received as to the
exact number of arms needed for the vol
unteers they will be shipped to their State
rendezvous for distribution.
The three independent regiments of cav
airy authorized by the volunteer army act,
and which are to be composed exclusively
of frontiersmen, possessing special qualih-
cations as to horsemanship and marksman-
ship, are to be known as the First, SECOND
and Third Regiments of United States Vol
unteer Cavalry. They are to be composed
of twelve troops each.
Adjutant General Corbin said this after
noon that the secretary of war has decided
to adhere to the allotments already made
to the various States and Territories un-
der the Presidents call for $4,000 men for
service in the volunteer army, and that 1t
is only a waste of time for the officials of
the different States to endeavor to have
had been several changes made in the orig
inal plan due to the necessities of the case,
and that in one or two instances where it
was advisable changes had been made in
the character of the troops that the States
or Territories should furnish cavalry being
substituted for artillery and infantry for
cavalry or artillery where such changes
were found expedient by reason of the char
acter of the state military organizations.
General Corbin declared, however, that in
no case had the allotment of the States
been increased beyond the limit originally
fixed and that such d course was now i'm
possible unless the President should call for
more troops or unless some of the States
should fail to provide their quota. General
Corbin said he had no knowledge of any
purpose on the part of the executive to call
for additional volunteers, and that there
was no prospect whatever of any of the
States or Territories falling to respond to
the requisiton already made.