of the manuscript papers known as Force's American Archives, with the probable expense of publishing so much of the same as covers the period from 1776 to 1783." That report is printed as Senate Miscellaneous Document No. 34, Forty-sixth Congress, first session. In that report the Librarian said: While the larger portion of the manuscript material in question consists of copies carefully verified from original letters and documents in the Department of State, Mr. Force has also secured a large amount of material from the archives of New Hampshire, Georgia, Massachusetts, and several of the old thirteen States, besides multitudes of papers in the possession of private individuals. The "Revolutionary Archives," which were transferred from the Department of State to the Library of Congress under the Executive order of March 9, 1903 (Report of the Librarian of Congress for 1903, p. 24), are known to contain many documents relating to military operations during the Revolutionary war It is evident that before the printing of the military records of the Revolution is undertaken by the Government, all of those archives in its custody or under its control should be gathered together in one place, either in the War Department or in the Library of Congress, and that that collection should be completed by obtaining, as far as possible, copies of records in the custody of the authorities of the several States, and of historical societies and individuals. The preparation of the military records of the Revolutionary war for printing and the printing of those records should be done under the supervision either of the Librarian of Congress or of the War Department. Reports of the Secretary of War and of the Librarian of Congress on House Joint Resolution No. 140, and House bill No. 19082, Sixtieth Congress, first session, relative to the printing of the "Complete orders of General George Washington during the war of the Revolution," and the "Rolls of soldiers, sailors, and marines, and the orders, returns, and reports, together with the official correspondence relating to the war of the Revolution," are printed in Report No. 1558, House of Representatives, Sixtieth Congress, first session. ACCESS TO OFFICIAL RECORDS. Applicants for information from the records for literary purposes or for use in the prosecution of claims against the United States have continued to insist upon having personal access to the official records, or that extended transcripts from the records be made for them. The furnishing of information from the official records for use in the prosecution of pension and other claims, except to the official charged by law with the adjudication of the claim, is prohibited by the rules of the War Department, based upon section 5498 of the Revised Statutes, which makes it an offense for any public official to aid or assist in the prosecution of any claim against the United States "otherwise than in the discharge of his official duties." The official duties of any person in the military service in the matter of furnishing information that can be made the basis of a claim against the Government are limited by paragraph 831, Army Regulations, to furnishing such information to the proper officers of the War, Treasury, or Interior Departments, or the Department of Justice." Access to the official records is denied to persons who are not trained in their use and who are not legally subject to the control of the War Department for the following reasons: (1) Many of the documents have become so dilapidated through age and years of handling that it is not safe to subject them to further handling, especially by inexperienced persons. (2) A document misfiled is as hopelessly lost as if it were willfully abstracted from the files, and the probability of misfiling records if they are handled by persons other than the trained clerks is very great. (3) Because of the restricted space available it has been necessary to file the records in such a way that only those who have been especially trained in their use can find any particular record or class of records. The constant aid and attendance of an employee of the Department would be necessary to enable any one unfamiliar with the files to make a successful search for any particular document. The official records, especially those of a later date, contain much that is of a confidential character and that can not be made public without the risk of injury to public or private interests or that can be made the source of serious detriment to the reputations of the living and the dead. Consequently, the Department is compelled to safeguard those records in order that no improper or detrimental use may be made of them. The Adjutant-General pointed out in previous annual reports that the only way in which such records as are of general historical interest or value, and can be published without endangering public or private interests, can be made accessible to the public generally is by publishing those records in the same way as the records of the civil war were published. If space can be found in the Department building available for the purpose of bringing together in one place the earlier historical records and for arranging those records so as to make them accessible to persons who may desire to consult them for historical purposes, it is believed that the rules of the War Department can be so far relaxed as to permit the exhibition of records of a general historical nature relating to wars prior to the civil war for literary or historical purposes. MEDALS OF HONOR. The act of Congress approved April 23, 1904 (33 Stat. L., 274), provides for the presentation, by direction of the President and in the name of Congress, of medals of honor to such officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates as "have most distinguished, or may hereafter most distinguish, themselves by their gallantry in action." That act also provides for the exchange of medals issued under former legislation for those of later design. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908, there were 100 medals of honor issued. Of these, 96 were issued to replace medals of the old design, and 4 were original issues of medals awarded during the year. The whole number of awards of the congressional medal of honor up to and including June 30, 1908, was 2,594. CAMPAIGN BADGES. Campaign badges, to be issued as articles of uniform to officers and enlisted men in service "to commemorate services which have been or shall hereafter be rendered in campaign," were authorized by General Orders, No. 4, War Department, January 11, 1905. The campaigns for which those badges were to be issued were announced from time to time in War Department general orders. Those campaigns are summarized in General Orders, No. 129, War Department, August 13, 1908, as follows: (a) Civil war campaign badge: To be issued to officers and enlisted men who served in the Regular or Volunteer Army or in the militia in the service of the United States during the civil war between April 15, 1861, and April 9, 1865. (b) Indian campaign badge: To be issued to officers and enlisted men who served in the following campaigns against hostile Indians: In southern Oregon and Idaho and northern parts of California and Nevada, 1865-1868. Against Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, and Comanches in Kansas, Colorado, and Indian Territory, 1867, 1868, and 1869. Modoc war, 1872 and 1873. Against Apaches of Arizona, 1873. Against Kiowas, Comanches, and Cheyennes in Kansas, Colorado, Texas, Indian Territory, and New Mexico, 1874 and 1875. Against Northern Cheyennes and Sioux, 1876 and 1877. Nez Percé war, 1877. Bannock war, 1878. Against Northern Cheyennes, 1878 and 1879. Against Utes in Colorado and Utah, September, 1879, to November, 1880. Against Apaches in Arizona and New Mexico, 1885 and 1886. Against Sioux in South Dakota, November, 1890, to January, 1891. In such minor campaigns as involved marches, camps, and bivouacs by troops actually in the field and operating against hostile Indians. (c) Spanish campaign badge: To be issued to officers and enlisted men who served on the high seas en route to, or ashore in, Cuba, between May 11, 1898, and July 17, 1898; Porto Rico, between July 24, 1898, and August 13, 1898; or the Philippine Islands, between June 30, 1898, and August 16, 1898. (d) Philippine campaign badge: To be issued to officers and enlisted men who served ashore in the Philippine Islands between February 4, 1899, and July 4, 1902; in the Department of Mindanao, between February 4, 1899, and December 31, 1904; or in the expeditions against Pala and his followers, Jolo, April and May, 1905; against Datu Ali and his followers, Mindanao, October, 1905, and against hostile Moros on Mount Bud-Dajo, Jolo, March, 1906. (e) China campaign badge: To be issued to officers and enlisted men who served ashore in China with the Peking Relief Expedition, between June 20, 1900, and May 27, 1901. During the past fiscal year 3,501 additional names were added to the lists of officers and enlisted men who were found to be entitled to campaign badges, making a total of 35,066 officers and enlisted men found to be entitled to those badges. Of these, 26,109 were found to be entitled to badges on account of service in the Philippine campaign, 6,431 on account of service in the Spanish campaign, 1,423 on account of service in the Peking Relief Expedition, 925 on account of service in Indian campaigns, and 178 on account of service during the civil war. The campaign badges are issued by the Quartermaster-General of the Army on data furnished by The Adjutant-General's Office. The distribution of the Spanish and Philippine campaign badges was begun in January, 1908, and the distribution of the civil war, Indian, and China campaign badges in June, 1908. PHILIPPINE SERVICE MEDALS. The act of Congress approved June 29, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 621), authorized and directed the Secretary of War to procure a bronze medal, with suitable device, "to be presented to each of the several officers and enlisted men and families of such as may be dead, who, having volunteered and enlisted under the calls of the President for the war with Spain, served beyond the term of their enlistment to help to suppress the Philippine insurrection, and who subscquently received an honorable discharge from the Army of the United States, or who died prior to such discharge." Those medals are issued by the Quartermaster-General of the Army on data furnished by The Adjutant-General's Office. Up to and including June 30, 1908, reports as to whether the service upon which the application was based was such as to authorize the issue of the medal had been made by The Adjutant-General's Office in 835 cases. In 632 of these cases the service was found to be such as to come within the provisions of the law, and in the remaining 203 cases the service was found to be such as to preclude the issue of the medal. A great majority of the cases of the latter class were cases in which the applicant, or the person on account of whose service application was made, did not enter the service under the call of the President for the war with Spain; because he did not serve in the Philippine Islands; because he did not serve in the Philippine Islands after the termination of the war with Spain, or because the service was not honorably terminated. The QuartermasterGeneral was advised with regard to the record in the case of each of the applications received. CLERICAL FORCE This annual report would not be complete without mention of the credit that is due to the civilian employees of The Adjutant-General's Office for the zeal and interest manifested, almost without exception, by those employees in the work of the office. It is only through that zeal and interest that the prompt and efficient transaction of the public business, hereinbefore shown, has been possible. No reduction in the number of employees authorized by law for the office was made during the past fiscal year, but the improved business methods adopted in the Record and Pension Office, and subscquently extended to the other branches and divisions now constituting The Adjutant-General's Office, have made it possible to handle the increasing volume of business promptly and efficiently without any increase in the clerical force. THE SECRETARY OF WAR. F. C. AINSWORTH, |