FORAGE AND STRAW.

The issues of forage and straw during the fiscal year, have been

That is to say, about one and a quarter millions of bushels of corn; one million bushels of oats; one hundred and sixty thousand bushels of barley; sixty-five thousand tons of hay, and three thousand tons of

straw.

CONTRACTS.

There have been received at this office during the fiscal year, 968 contracts, classified as follows:

For forage, viz: Corn to the amount of 771,290 bushels; barley to
the amount of 139,884 bushels; oats to the amount of 843,633
bushels; wheat to the amount of 14,133 bushels; hay to the
amount of 57,286 tons...

To deliver forage in quantities as required from time to time, (the
total quantities not specified)
For straw, to the amount of 1,997 tons.
For straw, in quantities as required...
For coal, to the amount of 22,740 tons.
For coal, in quantities as required....
For wood, to the amount of 95,920 cords.
For wood, in quantities as required...
For charcoal..........

For lumber, and other building material..
For land transportation...

For services, including charter of vessels.
For leases..

For stationery..

For horses as follows, viz: 2,057 cavalry horses, 21 artillery horses,

and 740 mules..

Total....

ANIMALS HORSES AND MULES.

There were in the military service on June 30, 1868, 14,483 horses; 17,866 mules, and 211 oxen. At the termination of the fiscal year, June 30, 1869, there were in service 9,584 horses, 18,005 mules, and 237 oxen. There died during the year 2,508 horses, and 726 mules. There were sold 2,054 horses, 1,427 mules, and 11 oxen. There were lost or stolen 690 horses, and 210 mules. There were purchased 3,353 horses, and 2,502 mules.

The total expenditure for purchase of animals was 8766,195 10. The average price paid was, for horses, $139 75; for mules, $136 96. The horses and mules sold produced $223,338 25.

Of 14,836 horses in service during the year 2,508 died, and 2,054 were sold, and 690 were stolen or lost.

As nearly all those sold were sold as having become unfit for military service, the casualties or loss of horses in the military service would appear to be not less than thirty-three per cent. per annum.

Of 20,368 mules in service during the year, 2,363 were sold or lost or died. As a greater proportion of the mules sold were sold on breaking up of depots, and still in good condition, the casualties may be considered not to have exceeded eight or ten per cent.

CLERKS.

The experience of the past year shows that the clerical force of this office has been reduced too low. The examination of officers' accounts and returns currently received has fallen into arrears, and there still remain a large number of accounts unsettled. The clothing and equi page returns accumulate, and the accounts of railroads for transportation are not settled as promptly as justice to the roads demands.

There should be an increase to the establishment of not less than seventeen clerks, and an appropriation should be granted for the employment for one year of thirty temporary clerks. These should all be clerks of some experience in order to be effective, and the classification recom mended is as follows:

Without some such increase the business of the office must fall stin more into arrears.

I forward herewith the reports of the three officers, Generals Ekin, Perry, and Dana, who have been on duty in charge of the several branches into which the business of this office now divides itself. To their intelligent and courteous co-operation I am much indebted.

The officers of the department, stationed all over the country of the United States, from Alaska to Florida, have distinguished themselves by the same industry and intelligent zeal which won them the approbation of the country during the war. Very few occasions for censure or correction have arisen, and the great reduction in the expenditures of the department within the past year has not been obtained without their zealous co-operation.

I annex to this report a tabular statement of their stations and duties during the past year, and also a statement of their stations on the 30th September last. Many other tables giving in detail what I have narrated above, also accompany the report.

To the clerks in this office, hard worked from the too great reduction of its clerical force, I am under obligations for faithful and intelligent assistance.

All of which is most respectfully submitted.

M. C. MEIGS,

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

The ADJUTANT GENERAL OF THE ARMY,

Washington, D. C.

CEMETERIAL BRANCH, QUARTERMASTER GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, D. C., October 14, 1869.

GENERAL: I have the honor to state that in connection with my other duties I have, during the past fiscal year, continued in charge of the cemeterial branch of this office; and, in compliance with the instructions contained in a circular letter dated Quartermaster General's Office, June 15, 1869, I respectfully submit herewith my annual report of the cemeterial operations throughout the United States during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869.

The work of collecting and reinterring the scattered remains of the deceased Union soldiers may now be considered as virtually completed. A few bodies not discovered in the first search for them may yet be found; but these will eventually be gathered up and removed to national cemeteries from the woods, fields, or other localities where they now lie, as fast as this department obtains reliable information of them.

The work of protecting and marking the graves, of inclosing the cemeteries, and of making the various interior improvements, has been continued and is now nearly finished; the work yet to be done on most of the national cemeteries consisting simply in keeping them in good order and repairing such damages as time and the elements and local circumstances may cause from time to time.

The tabular statement accompanying this report and marked A shows that reports have been received from seventy-two (72) national cemeteries and from three hundred and thirteen (313) local, private, or post cemeteries, in which are interred the remains of deceased Union soldiers.

The total number of bodies of deceased Union soldiers reported interred throughout the United States is three hundred and twenty-two thousand six hundred and seven, (322,607.)

It is reported that the remains of one hundred and seventy-one thousand, nine hundred and forty-eight (171,948) can be identified, while those of one hundred and fifty thousand six hundred and fifty-nine (150,659) must as yet remain unknown.

The number of bodies of deceased Union soldiers reported to have been reinterred up to date of report is two hundred and thirty-three thousand seven hundred and nine, (233,709,) and the number yet to be reinterred is estimated to be ten thousand seven hundred and fifty-three, (10,753.)

The estimated aggregate of expenditures made by the Quartermaster's Department on account of interments and other cemeterial operations up to June 30, 1868, was reported at two millions eight hundred and one thousand three hundred and fifty-two dollars and forty-nine cents, ($2,801,352 49.)

During the past fiscal year the expenditures reported on that account amounted to four hundred and sixty-five thousand and seventeen dollars and fifty cents, ($465,017 50

It is estimated that two hundred and twenty-six thousand nine hundred and twenty-five dollars and forty-one cents ($226,925 41) are yet needed for various purposes connected with the national cemeteries and operations thereon.

The aggregate amount of expenditures, past and future, on national cemeteries, will thus appear to be three millions four hundred and ninetythree thousand two hundred and ninety-five dollars and forty cents, ($3,493,295 40.)

It is also reported that the remains of twenty-one thousand three hundred and eleven, (21,311) rebel prisoners of war have been interred by this department at various places throughout the North, more especially at the large prison camps established there during the war.

The number of national cemeteries to which the Quartermaster General, under the provisions of the acts of Congress of April 13, 1866, July 28, 1866, and February 22, 1867, has procured titles that have been pronounced good and valid by the honorable Attorney General of the United States, has been increased to seventy-one, (71,) as specified in the accompanying statement marked B.

During the past fiscal year the question arose of the necessity of procuring consent of the respective legislatures of the various States wherein the national cemeteries are established, and cession of jurisdiction to the United States by them, prior to purchasing the land whereon the cemeteries had already been located, and prior to paying to the former owners the purchase money as agreed upon or decreed by a court vested with the requisite authority under the act of February 22, 1867. The matter was submitted to the honorable Secretary of War on the 13th of May, 1869, with the request that it be referred to the honorable Attorney General of the United States for his advice, attention being invited to certain provisions in the Constitution of the United States and in former acts placed upon the statute books, apparently inconsistent with those of the act referred to above.

On the 29th of July, 1869, the honorable Attorney General returned the papers in the case, giving it as his opinion that "the act provides for taking and holding the national cemeteries without the consent of the owner," and he does not "suppose that it was the intention of Congress that the owner should be deprived of his land without compensation, because the consent of the legislature of the State might not be given to the appropriation of the land to public use by the national

authority." He further advises that the consent and cession of juris. diction be requested of the respective State legislatures as soon as practicable, the procurement of which would make the act of February 22, 1867, operative.

Copies of all the papers in the case are respectfully inclosed herewith, marked D.

Wherever strictly required permanent iron fences or stone walls and brick or stone lodges have been erected or completed within the past fiscal year, while it was considered most economical and advisable not to disturb the temporary wooden fences or lodges until they should decay, and thus require new ones to be constructed of a more permanent material.

The question of the material to be employed for the permanent headblocks required by law to be placed at the head of each grave is not as yet decided upon; no directions having been furnished this office from the War Department in reply to various reports of the Quartermaster General on that subject prior to the past fiscal year.

The guns referred to in the report of last year, designed to be set up in the form of a monument, have been furnished to the principal national cemeteries during the past fiscal year, and have been erected in appropriate places therein.

Much attention has been paid to the proper drainage of the cemeteries and the best method therefor. Stone or brick drains, culverts, and gutters are expensive, and in some localities, owing to the nature of the soil and the topographical features of the surface, have proved difficult to keep in order. In view of these facts it has been decided to adopt in all cases, where the conditions of soil and surface permit, a system of grassed gutters. These are comparatively inexpensive, and, it is believed, will, when properly located, answer well the purpose for which they are intended; moreover they can be kept in order with very little labor expended on them.

At Vicksburg, Mississippi, it was deemed most practicable by the officer in charge of laying out the national cemetery at that place to build a number of terraces and to make the interments therein. It was drained in the usual manner by brick gutters and culverts; this method of drainage was, however, afterward found to be impracticable, not being sufficient to carry off the water falling on or near these terraces, and caused land slips in the made ground of which these works were constructed; thus doing great damage and injury to the cemetery.

The Quartermaster General, therefore, in February last, directed an experienced civil engineer to proceed to that cemetery for the purpose of protecting the grounds and securing a perfect drainage. He is now engaged on this work, re-grading the grounds, laying tiles, and constructing such other works as will insure this cemetery from further damage by the seasons.

Prior to July 1, 1869, fifteen volumes of the "Roll of Honor" had been published, containing the record of one hundred and thirty-seven thousand eight hundred and ninety-five (137,895) graves of deceased soldiers.

During the past fiscal year six more volumes have been added, containing the record of one hundred and seventeen thousand seven hundred and seventy (117,770) graves. Three volumes containing the record of fifty-one thousand five hundred and thirty-five (51,535) graves have also been prepared, and are now in the hands of the Public Printer for publication.