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It is impossible to convey to any one, who has not himself traveled in a sandy, stony, and rocky desert, any clear idea of the desolation of the regions through which the Lower Colorado and Gila flow. They are a true Sahara. The heat is intense; daily for some months it rises above 100° Fahrenheit in the shade. Rain is almost unknown. The common saying, when I visited the country in the spring of 1872, was that it had not rained for three years. This was not literally true, for the meteorological records at Fort Yuma show occasional showers, and sometimes they are severe; but they last but a short time. There is no rainy season, and the general character of the country and climate is. that of extreme sterility, caused by the absence of moisture. In the valleys of the Gila and Colorado, a moderate breadth of bottom-land is capable of irrigation and cultivation, but the generally forbidding aspect of the country, the danger of robbery and murder from the roving bands of savages and of Mexicans, who cross the border from Sonora, have prevented any large settlements growing up on the lower course of these rivers. Most of the people who live there depend upon the business of transportation of supplies to the Army and to the mines for their support, and were the Army withdrawn the settlers would quit that portion of the country. It is a most expensive country in which to conduct military operations and to maintain an army, but it is full of the precious metals. It is occupied by a small population, partly natives and partly emigrants from the East, all of whom the United States is bound, by its treaties with Mexico, from whom we acquired the country, and by our obligations to our own citizens, miners, and farmers, to protect. The country too embraces one of the routes for the transcontinental railroad below the line of deep snow, and the construction of that railroad will be the best and speediest and least costly mode of protecting the inhabitants from the Indians and Mexicans.

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I again call your attention to the unfortunate condition of the tenure of the military posts on the frontier in Texas and renew the recommen dation made last year on this subject.

Owing to the property in all public lands in Texas being in the State, and not in the United States, and to the restrictions imposed upon the War Department by the law of May 1, 1820, (Statutes at Large, volume 3, chapter 52, section 7, page 568,) which forbids the purchase of any lands for use of the United States without a special law authorizing it, most of the military posts in Texas have been established upon lands to which the United States has no title. These posts have generally been located far in advance of any settlement, and, when located, there has probably been generally no knowledge of the condition of the title, whether in the State, or taken up and entered under State laws by individuals. Such lands, until occupied and protected, have generally had very little value. Probably 25 cents per acre would be a large price for lands in the vicinity of most of the frontier posts in Texas, even after protection was assured by their occupation by troops of the United States; but the moment the United States begins to build shelter for the troops, the lands are, if the property of the State, entered by some citizen, or, if the property of an unlettered person, purchased by some man of business, who sees in them, occupied and improved by the United States, a prospect of great improvement in value and the foundation of a claim for rent or sale.

The War Department, in the present state of the law, is helpless in this matter. If the demands of those who hold title are extravagant, it has generally thus far declined to pay rent. It is prohibited by law from purchasing.

Some of the sites in Texas have a certain value as containing springs of water, which in some parts of that State are well-known stoppingplaces for traders and travelers and for warriors; and these springs are gradually being taken up and made private property at prices probably not exceeding 25 or 50 cents per acre for the land which must be entered in order to control them. Without the use of these springs, very large tracts in the neighborhood are valueless, indeed uninhabitable. I recommend that the attention of Congress be called to this subject and that the Secretary of War be clothed with authority to purchase the sites of such military posts as are already, or as may be within a few years, established in Texas, at prices which he may determine to be just and reasonable, considering the value of the land before its occupation by the United States. I see no other mode of settling a very disputed and important question. If this authority is granted, a moderate appropriation should be made to pay for the land. The sites, when occupied by the United States, had little intrinsic value. Their present value depends, in a great degree, upon the improvements made by the United States for the protection of the State and its inhabitants.

The reports of officers on duty in this office, which are herewith, and the accompanying tables, are referred to for information in detail upon the several subjects of this report.

Respectfully submitted.

M. C. MEIGS,

Quartermaster-General, Brevet Major-General, U. S. A.

Hon. WILLIAM W. BELKNAP,

Secretary of War.

List of papers accompanying the annual report of the Quartermaster-General for the fiscal

year ended June 30, 1872.

1.-Report of Colonel Robert Allen, assistant quartermaster-general U. S. A., of the inspection and finance branches of the Quartermaster-General's Office during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1872.

Accompanying papers:

A.-List of officers on duty in the Quartermaster's Department during the fiscal year. B.-List of line officers on duty as acting assistant quartermasters, and of the stations at which they have served during the fiscal year.

C.-Report of the stations and duties of officers of the Quartermaster's Department on July 1, 1872. 2.-Report of Major J. D. Bingham, quartermaster U. S. A., of the operations of the accounting branch of the Quartermaster General's Office during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1872.

3.-Report of Major J. D. Bingham, quartermaster U. S. A., of the operations of the clothing branch of the Quartermaster General's Oflice during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1872.

Accompanying papers:

A.-Statement showing the quantity of clothing, camp and garrison equipage, and clothing materials in the hands of officers June 30, 1871, the quantity purchased, manufactured, sold, lost, and issued during the fiscal year, and quantity remaining on hand for the supply of the Army on June 30, 1872.

B.-Statement showing expenditures on account of clothing, camp and garrison equipage, during the fiscal year.

C.-Statement of amounts received from sales of clothing, camp and garrison equip age during the fiscal year.

D.-Statement of the amounts received and expended on account of clothing and equipage during the fiscal year.

E.-Statement of returns of clothing, camp and garrison equipage received, examined, and transmitted to the Treasury Department, and of letters received and written during the fiscal year.

4.-Report of Major J. D. Bingham, quartermaster U. S. A., of the operations of the cemeterial branch of the Quartermaster General's Office during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1872.

5.-Report of Major M. I. Ludington, quartermaster U. S. A., of the operations of the regular supplies, transportation, and barracks and quarters branch of the Quartermaster General's Office during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1872.

Accompanying papers:

A.-Statement of the indebtedness of southern railroad companies for railway material for the fiscal year.

B.-Table of land-grant railroads.

C.-Abstract of contracts for wagon transportation entered into by the Quartermaster's Department during the fiscal year.

D.-Statement of vessels chartered, impressed, and employed during the fiscal year. E.-Statement of vessels owned or purchased by the Quartermaster's Department during the fiscal year.

· F.—Abstract of contracts for water-transportation during the fiscal year. G.-Statement of troops and stores transported during the fiscal year.

H.-Statement of amounts paid on account of rail, river, stage, and wagon trans

portation during the fiscal year.

I.-Statement of accounts and claims in transportation division for the fiscal year.
K.-Statement of claims filed under act of July 4, 1864 during the fiscal year.
L.-Statement of miscellaneous claims filed during the fiscal year.

6.-General Orders No. 64, War Department, Adjutant General's Office, October 25, 1871. 7.-General Orders No. 75, War Department, Adjutant General's Office, December 26, 1871.

8.-Pamphlet of drawings of military buildings recommended to the Secretary of War by the board on revision of the Army Regulations.

9.-List of number of interments of Union soldiers in national military cemeteries and information for bidders for furnishing headstones for the same.

REPORT OF THE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF SUBSISTENCE.

OFFICE OF COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF SUBSISTENCE,

Washington City, October 5, 1872.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of the Subsistence Department of the Army for the fiscal year terminating June 30, 1872:

No changes of special importance or magnitude have taken place in the mode of subsisting the Army during the past year, the sources and methods of supply having, since the war, been gradually brought into close conformity with the customary usages governing in commercial transactions. A responsible officer is placed at the headquarters of each of the three military divisions and eleven military departments. into which the whole territory of the United States is divided, who, under the General Regulations of the Army, the instructions of this office, and the orders of the commanding generals of such divisions and departments, is charged with supplying the troops of their respective commands.

There being three vacancies in the Subsistence Department, the number of its officers is now twenty-six. Of these, one colonel and two lieutenant-colonels, assistant commissaries-general, are stationed at the headquarters of the Divisions of the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Missouri. Ten commissaries, of the rank of major and captain, are stationed at the headquarters of the Military Departments of the East, the Lakes,

Dakota, the Platte, the Missouri, Texas, California, the Columbia, the South, and the Gulf. Most of these officers, besides performing the duties of chief commissary of their several headquarters, usually also perform purchasing and depot duties. Of the remaining officers of the Department-thirteen-four are on duty in the Subsistence Bureau, eight are stationed at important points of purchase or at depots, as Washington, Baltimore, Saint Louis, Chicago, Sioux City, Pueblo, Santa Fé, and Cheyenne, one being on leave. An officer of cavalry is temporarily performing the duty of chief commissary at the headquarters of Arizona.

A terrible conflagration having laid in ashes a large part of the city of Chicago, the Subsistence Department was, under the telegraphic instructions of the Secretary of War to Lieutenant-General P. H. Sheridan, United States Army, dated October 9, 1871, called upon to furnish and distribute food to the sufferers by that calamity. Accordingly, supplies were hurried forward from Saint Louis and Cincinnati, but the magnificent contributions by the people for their suffering fellow-citizens, soon poured into Chicago from all quarters so freely that the sum of $5,705.83 only was expended for this purpose by the Subsistence Department. The supplies sent to Chicago were, however, most oppor tunely there, to meet a call from the governor of Wisconsin for the sufferers by the forest-fires which swept over portions of that State. For this purpose, Lieutenant-General Sheridan, under the authority of the Secretary of War, of November 15, 1871, caused food valued at $30,836.11 to be issued to the governor, "on condition that the State of Wisconsin will account for the stores at their value if required to do so hereafter."

During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1872, there were reported to this office 198 advertisements inviting proposals for furnishing supplies, 336 contracts for fresh beef, 75 contracts for complete rations, 159 contracts for miscellaneous articles, and 370 contracts consisting of written proposals and acceptances. In order promptly to meet the requirements of the troops, it is occasionally necessary to make purchases in the open market. When this is done the purchasing officers take the customary means for obtaining their supplies at the lowest market rates for kind and quality of articles purchased. The average prices paid for fresh beef, under contracts made during the year, were as follows, for the several States and Territories:

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Making the average contract price for the year 10.36 cents per pound

net.

The monthly average cost of the established Army ration at the prin

Cents per pound.

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cipal points of purchase was for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1872,

as follows:

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Making the general average for the year seventeen cents and fourteen hundredths per ration, being a decrease of two cents and forty-two hundredths from the average for the previous year.

As required by law, (section 6, act of March 3, 1865,) the Subsistence Department has furnished tobacco for sale to enlisted men of the Army at cost price. From the returns received at this office, and transmitted to the Paymaster-General, it appears that during the year the sales of tobacco to troops amounted to $157,113.24, making an average of $13,092.72 per month, and indicating that fully two-thirds of the enlisted men availed themselves of the means the Government thus affords them of obtaining this article. As the Government is repaid by the soldier for the tobacco supplied him, it is deemed right to meet his demands by furnishing him with the best article of plug-tobacco offered in response to advertisements for proposals.

The Freedmen's Hospital, at Washington, D. C., has, during the year, been furnished, on requisitions of the Commissioner of Refugees, Freedmen, &c., with subsistence stores valued at $31,630.36. Of this amount the sum of $10,303.49 has been repaid, leaving a balance of $21,326.87 due the Subsistence Department.

Under the provisions of section 16 of the act of June 30, 1834, and paragraph 1202, Revised Regulations for the Army, 1863, subsistence supplies valued at $89,048.12 have, in the discretion of commanding officers, been issued to Indians of the various tribes visiting the military posts on the frontier, or in their respective nations, no part of which amount is returned to the appropriation for the subsistence of the Army. Issues of subsistence stores to Indians have also been made under proper instructions and to meet special emergencies, as follows:

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