forth the existence and nature of the physical disability. The only restrictions imposed upon the 17 officers, upon whom this extraordinary authority was conferred, was that they should certify to a personal inspection of the soldier, as also the nature and origin of his disability. There was also another superfluous requirement, that the discharge should be with the consent of the soldier.

The chief feature of this law entitled

An act to facilitate the discharge of enlisted men for disability,

was not that it made a portion of the staff independent of the line. It tempted the medical inspectors, as no other officers were tempted during the war, to commit fraud; and when their personal character forbade corrupt approach, it subjected them to the danger of abetting fraud, in spite of the utmost vigilance and devotion. Whenever they visited a hospital, it was not even necessary for them to consult the military commander. Contrary to his views, contrary to the opinions of the surgeon in charge, they could enter a ward, glance around it, and order the discharge of as few or as many men as they saw fit. The orders regulating the discharges were bad enough, but this law made the inspectors supreme. If the military commander and the surgeon ventured to oppose him, they became obstructors of the law, and, in the days of arbitrary arrests and dismissal without trial, they might lose their commission for their pains."

But the interests of the Government were not so much jeopardized by the personal corruption, to which the inspectors were exposed, as by the possibility of their being made the victims of unscrupulous and designing individuals. If a surgeon and hospital steward chose to collude with the men, all the former had to do was to present their cases and represent them as fit subjects for discharge. The inspector, except in cases of wounds, could not be expected to detect malingering or frauds. The patients were collected together, the hasty inspection was but a matter of form, the certificates, already prepared, were signed, and the soldier, who in the morning anticipated returning to his regiment, at night found himself en route to his home, emancipated from all restraints of military service.

In the work of reducing and paralyzing the national armies by discharge, three distinct classes of agents were employed. The first was composed of the surgeons and assistant surgeons of the Regular Army, and the staff surgeons of the volunteers, all of whom received their appointments after rigid examinations and were commissioned by the President. The second class was composed of surgeons and assistant surgeons of volunteers, who, without any examination, were commissioned at the beginning by the governors of the States. The third class was composed of physicians in "good standing," who were alike

@Those who advocate the independence of the staff would do well to study the operation of this law. A single instance may here be given. One of the 17 inspectors, it was well known, received his appointment through political influence, no attention being paid to his professional acquirements. Not many months after he was commissioned, he appeared at the convalescent camp at Alexandria, where it was soon noised abroad that soldiers from a particular State could procure their discharge. The work continued till the surgeon in charge notified the military commander, who caused the inspector to immediately quit the camp. This instance may be cited as one of a multitude to establish the principle that corruption in administration tends to increase in direct proportion to the emancipation of ministrative officers from the supervision and control of military commanders.

irresponsible to the Government or the States. Of the first and second classes, only those surgeons and assistant surgeons could grant certificates of disability, who were in charge of a Regimental, Field, or General Hospital. The third class, under General Orders, No. 65, could sign these certificates, whenever applied to by a soldier who had succeeded in reaching his home.

A comparison of the strength of the first and second classes will show that under the confederate theory of war, so hastily adopted by the Cabinet and Congress in 1861, the organization and disorganization of our armies were left chiefly in the hands of the agents appointed by the States. The number of medical officers appointed by the President was:

The number appointed by the governors, and without examination,

The horde of physicians in good standing, who, under orders could sign certificates of disability, cannot be stated, but there was at least one for every town where a convalescent deserved or desired a discharge. Their aid to get out of the service could also be invoked by malingerers and deserters, who only needed a certificate to be entitled to the same consideration as the soldier whose limbs had been hopelessly shattered in battle.

The State Hospitals again grew up as the natural offspring of the laws of July, 1861, which placed the recruitment and organization of the volunteer forces in the hands of the governors. The replacement of the State Hospitals by General Hospitals, as also the orders to the Surgeon-General to fill them up by parties of sick and wounded, sent back from the field, have been cited as acts of unwise administration which would have been forced upon the Secretary of War, had he not chosen to make friends with the governors by yielding a prompt compliance to all their requests.

The effect of the mistakes in command and administration during the year 1862, induced by bad laws, may be estimated by restating figures principally relating to the Army of the Potomac. On the

a These figures are taken from the Army Register of January 1, 1863. Of the 17 medical inspectors who could discharge soldiers on their own certificates, 11 were appointed from civil life after the war began. The other 6, under the discretion allowed by the law, were selected from the Medical Corps of the Army.

Computed from the tabulated statement of the number of regiments of infantry, cavalry, and artillery furnished under the two calls of 1861 and 1862 for three years' troops. The number of medical officers falls short of the number actually appointed, as the independent battalions, companies, and batteries are not included. The medical officers allowed to each regiment by the laws of 1861 and 1862, were 1 surgeon and 2 assistant surgeons.

27th of June, the beginning of the Seven Days' Battles, it went into action with 95,000 men; the number of troops detached and withheld at the beginning of the Peninsula campaign was 40,000; the number of absentees on the 20th of July was 38,000. Withdrawn from the Peninsula, contrary to the entreaties of its commander, the army went into battle at Antietam with 87,000 men; the number for duty withheld at Washington was 73,000; the number of absentees from the Army of the Potomac and the forces at Washington has already been given as exceeding 101,000.

These figures show that the system adhered to by Congress since the Declaration of Independence, was responsible for many of the evils and sufferings entailed by a prolonged war. But statistics relating to discharges have yet to be added. It has already been stated that in March, 1862, when the President and the Secretary of War assumed military control, the Union armies exceeded 637,000 men. The total force of Confederates in the field at the beginning of the year did not exceed 220,000.

The number of men discharged in 1862, by means of the combined agencies referred to, approximated 100,000 men."

The immediate effect of those discharges was to reduce all the regiments in the field to mere skeletons; their permanent effect can be seen to-day in the system of pensions, which costs the people from thirty to forty millions a year."

@ This approximation is based upon the following figures furnished by the AdjutantGeneral's Office to the Commissioner of Pensions, April 24, 1880,

Number of men discharged during the Rebellion on certificate of disability, from actual record:

As it was during the year 1862 that the great armies of 1861 and 1862 completed their shrinking or seasoning process, it cannot be far out of the way to assume that one-third of the discharges were granted during the first year of actual field service.

The total amount paid in the year 1903 for pensions and the expense of mainte nance during the fiscal year was $141,752,870.50.-EDITORS.

The Landwehr battalion districts, the company districts, and the regimental depots are the links which, in foreign services, connect the people with the army. In each battalion district in Germany, for example, there is a cadre consisting of a field officer, an adjutant, and three noncommissioned officers. The rolls of all men in the reserve, in the Ersatz reserve, as also in the Landwehr, are kept at the district headquarters. A sergeant-major, or first sergeant, lives in each company district and serves as a medium of communications with the men at their homes.

When war is declared, each regiment designates a battalion to serve as a regimental depot. It consists of 22 officers, and may be recruited as high as 1,208 noncommissioned officers and men. The three battalions in the field, the depot battalion, the cadre of the Landwehr battalion, and company districts, all form part of one and the same regiment. Whenever a regiment loses 10 per cent of its men from battle or disease, the colonel does not apply for recruits to the adjutantgeneral at Berlin, but sends an order direct to the commander of the depot battalion to forward at once the number required. No man, after having once been enrolled in the army for active service, can skulk away and return to his home. The regulations require that all men in the reserve, the Landwehr, Ersatz reserve, or on furlough, shall, on returning to their company districts, report in person to the sergeant-major. The Government thus knows where every soldier is, who owes military service. If one deserts, and does not return to his home, he cannot long remain undiscovered by the many officers and

a By a General Order of the Headquarters of the Army, dated August 31, 1899, the third battalions of the First, Second, Fifth, Eighth, and Tenth regiments of infantry were designated depot battalions, in contradistinction with the other two battalions, which were to be known as active battalions. Later in the same year, the provisions of the order were extended to the Fifteenth, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-fifth regiments of infantry and the Second regiment of artillery; and in the following year (1900) it was further extended to the First, Third, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth regiments of cavalry and the Second, Fifth, Eighth, and Eleventh regiments of infantry. In all cases it was provided that the officers and men of the regiments named whe were unfit for active service should be transferred to the depot battalions or squadrons and replaced by an equal number of able-bodied men from those battalions. In no case was the system applied until the regiment concerned was about to depart for foreign service, and ceased with its return to the home station. The system has not worked satisfactorily in practice, and has been allowed to lapse-regiments at the present time being sent on foreign service intact.

In Europe Germany, for example-there is a fourth battalion, which in time of war becomes the depot battalion. It transfers its personnel to the other battalions to bring them up to war strength, and immediately begins recruiting to maintain that strength by successive detachments of reenforcements to the active battalions in the field, thus leaving the three active battalions of the regiments intact.-EDITORS.

men who are undergoing military training in the districts where he may seek refuge.

This district regulation, as a dead letter, has existed in our military system since 1792, and was again reenacted in section 1626, Revised Statutes, which reads:

It shall be the duty of every captain or commanding officer of a company to enroll every such citizen residing within the bounds of his company, and all those who may, from time to time, arrive at the age of 18 years, or who, being of the age of 18 years and under the age of 45 years, come to reside within his bounds.a

Wherever Congress has shown a disposition to adopt the principle of military organization observed in continental armies, it has been dissuaded from its purpose by the demagogic admonition that foreign organizations are dangerous to liberty. This cry has frequently been uttered in the Army, and is still held in reserve by those who are selfishly interested in the perpetuation of our present effete organization.

Whether their advice up to the year 1862 was for the good or evil of the country, will appear upon examining the measures adopted by the Government to suppress the evils of desertion and absence without leave. Congress had been generous in voting a million of men, but in blindly relying on voluntary enlistments and the cooperation of governors it did not consider territorial recruitment, regimental depots, and obligatory military service as worthy of consideration. As a consequence, the only territorial limits recognized by the law, were the States which, as in the cases of Rhode Island and California, varied anywhere from 1,300 to 159,000 square miles.

After the refusal to accept individual offers to raise troops, there was no direct link between the Government and the people. A mustering officer was stationed here and there in the large cities, who received and mustered into the service such organizations as were tendered by the States. Within these muster limits the Government had no military agents. It was not deemed necessary, nor were any efforts made to credit localities, like townships or counties, with the number of men furnished. When, as in the beginning of the Revolution, it was not thought possible for military enthusiasm to die out, governors whose quotas had been filled, saw with indifference, rejected organizations tendering their services to the governors of other States.

This option to enlist in any part of the country, regardless of the place of birth and citizenship, was another means of facilitating and encouraging desertion. In the absence of battalion and company districts, no stranger was looked upon with suspicion; if a deserter, there was no one to arrest him; if he reenlisted, the new community considered him a patriot. While all these evils had their origin in the law, the remedies applied had to be devised by the War Department. Adopted by a Secretary of War whose civil ability was unquestioned, the inadequacy, not to say absurdity, of each successive measure, should teach us the wisdom of adopting in time of peace a system, which will need no development or remodeling in time of war.

a Under the act of Congress approved January 21, 1903, the militia shall consist of every able-bodied male citizen of the respective States, Territories, and the District of Columbia, and every able-bodied male of foreign birth who has declared his intention to become a citizen, who is more than 18 and less than 45 years of age. Under section 2 of the act, certain persons are exempted.-EDITORS.

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