Excerpt from Report of the Secretary of War, Vol. 1: Being Part of the Message and Documents; Communicated to the Two Houses of Congress at the Beginning of the Second Session of the Forty-Fourth Congress Mr. President: The short space of time that has elapsed since I entered upon my present duties has barely sufficed to familiarize me with the affairs of the Department, and in this report I shall confine myself to a summary of the reports of the General of the Army and the chiefs of the various bureaus, referring you for details to the full reports of those officers, which are presented herewith. It is unnecessary to speak here of the size or organization of the Army, for the "whole subject of reform and re-organization of the Army" has been referred, by the act of July 24, 1876, to a commission consisting of two members from each house of Congress, the Secretary of War, and two officers of the Army. This commission met on the 11th of August, and has since collected a large mass of valuable statistics and opinions bearing upon the questions before it. These are now under consideration, and after full deliberation the report will be made up and presented to you for transmittal to Congress. It is hoped that the convictions of a commission containing such distinguished officers as Generals Sherman and Meigs, and Senators and Representatives of experience both in military and legislative affairs, will receive from Congress the consideration to which they are entitled, and that a comprehensive organic act may be framed for the Army which shall relieve it in the future from much of the special legislation which in so many cases is very detrimental to its discipline and efficiency. By the act of March 1, 1876, the President was authorized to make and publish regulations for the government of the Army, in accordance with existing laws. A set of regulations was drawn up under this act and was in course of consideration when, by resolution of August 15, 1876, the President was requested "to postpone all action in connection with the publication of said regulations until after the report of said commission shall have been received and acted on by Congress at its next session." In accordance with this resolution the draught of the regulations has been submitted to this commission for consideration in connection with other matters brought to its attention, and no further action has been taken for their promulgation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.