DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING.

The department of engineering during the past year, as in the previous one, has been under the charge of Capt. W. D. Beach, Third Cavalry. Progress therein has been eminently satisfactory. Instructor and assistants have been untiring in their zealous efforts to improve this part of the course of study. The new text-book upon field engi. neering, arranged for the use of the United States Infantry and Cavalry School and for the Army, by the instructor and assistants of the department of engineering, is completed. It has been approved by the school staff, and it is hoped will meet with the approval of the War Department. It is intended to have it printed in time for use by the present student class.

I respectfully call the attention of the War Department to the great need of additional instruments for this department. The student class is steadily becoming larger and more instruments are required to carry on the instructions thoroughly. They are also very expensive, and the small sum appropriated to carry on the school ($1,500 per year) should not be encroached upon for this purpose. If it be impracticable to have this amount increased as recommended elsewhere in this report, I would respectfully ask that a special appropriation of sixteen hundred dollars ($1,600) be made for the purchase of the instruments required.

Reference is made to the report1 of Captain Beach herewith, which details more fully the work of his department and its requirements.

DEPARTMENT OF INFANTRY.

The department of infantry has during the past year been under the supervision of Maj. J. T. Haskell, Twenty-fourth Infantry, he having succeeded Lieut. Col. Jacob Kline, Ninth Infantry, as instructor. A few days before the 1st of June last Major Haskell was ordered to the Indian Territory with three companies of infantry to repress disturbances. This was unfortunate, as it took the head of the department from his duties as instructor in the school just as the examination of the student class was about to begin.

The examination of this department was, therefore, conducted under the supervision of the senior assistant instructor, Capt. John F. Stretch, Tenth Infantry, whose report will be found herewith. Instruction in this department has consisted of recitations in the Drill Regulations and practical exercises with the troops.

DEPARTMENT OF CAVALRY.

This department has continued under the charge of Maj. C. C. C. Carr, Eighth Cavalry, and has been carried on with great efficiency by him and his able assistants.

The instruction consisted of recitations in Drill Regulations, Dwyer's Seats and Saddles, and practical exercises with the troops.

Major Carr's report1 in detail will be found herewith, and is respectfully referred to.

DEPARTMENT OF LAW.

The instruction in this department, under the supervision of Capt. J. M. J. Sanno, Seventh Infantry, has been very complete, comprising Davis's International Law and Cooley's Constitutional Law. Consider

Omitted.

able difficulty has been experienced in keeping instructors in this as well as in other departments, owing to the fact that they are generally taken from officers belonging to the troops or companies of the garri son, and are constantly liable to be detached and ordered away for other duty. This subject will be more fully discussed in another part of this report. Captain Sanno's report1 of the work in his department will be found herewith, and is respectfully referred to for details.

DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY HYGIENE.

Maj. Calvin DeWitt, surgeon, United States Army, has been in charge of this department since the departure of Maj. John Brooke, surgeon, United States Army, now retired.

The course of instruction during the past year has been limited to lectures on the subject of "Early aid to the injured." The principal part of the course of military hygiene takes place during the second

year.

REMARKS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.

I take pleasure in calling the attention of the War Department to the report of First Lieut. W. S. Scott, First Cavalry, the secretary of the school, which shows the great amount of work constantly in progress in his office. The position of secretary of the school has become of extreme importance, requiring great intelligence and unremitting labor. At no time has the place been filled more thoroughly and more to the satisfaction of all the officers connected with the school than by the present incumbent. The assistant to the secretary, Sergt. Philip F. Hoffman, Company H, Fourteenth Infantry, also merits commendation for efficiency and zeal. It is hoped that by the passage of the bill now before Congress the position held by Sergeant Hoffman may become permanent.

Great embarrassment in conducting the work of the school is occasioned by the loss of instructors and assistant instructors when in an emergency the companies and troops comprising the garrison are called out on detached service.

A number of the instructors and assistants in the departments of law, infantry, and cavalry belong to these organizations, and should ithey go with them the course of study in the school is seriously broken en upon. Should they remain to attend to their school duties their ompanies and troops are short the number of officers necessary for efficiency.

I know that it has been impracticable to detail as many officers for such duty as was really needed, because of limited quarters, but that difficulty has now been partially remedied by the erection of new buildings, and it may be further mitigated by the detail of a few officers for duty in the department of law, who shall also be required to instruct in the departments of infantry or cavalry.

The departments of engineering and military art are not so much affected, as the instructors and assistants in those departments are as a rule detailed by orders from Washington.

To illustrate the necessity of the above I will state that within a few weeks three companies of infantry were ordered away from this post to the Indian Territory on detached service of indefinite duration, which took away the head of the department of infantry (there being already one vacancy in the department), and this but three days before the annual examination of the student class, thus crippling a very impor

1 Omitted.

tant department at a time when the presence of every instructor was needed.

The examination, however, was proceeded with, but was not completed (there being three officers to be reexamined) when five more companies were ordered to Chicago. This carried off the head of the department of law, as well as an assistant instructor therein, leaving but one assistant instructor in that department to complete the work. This is liable to occur at any time, and it can readily be seen how crippled the instruction of the student class might become in a sudden emergency.

In view of the above I would respectfully recommend and request that in addition to those already detailed, there be sent here, by order of the War Department, one first lieutenant of infantry and two first. lieutenants of cavalry, to be assigned to duty as assistant instructors in the departments of infantry, cavalry, military art, or engineering, as the necessity of the case may require. By this means but few officers would be required from the garrison, and should the troops or companies be ordered away suddenly, the school work might still be continued by doubling duties, there being left for duty at least two in each department.

I believe the time is approaching when the usefulness of the Infantry and Cavalry School should be further increased by graduating a class of officers every year. The time required to complete the course of study remaining as now, two years, there would be about seventy officers in the two classes at any one time.

By sending thirty-five or forty officers to their regiments yearly from this school, having been thoroughly instructed in its course of study and its practical work, they would very soon make their influence felt throughout the service and would result in great benefit to the Army at large. It would probably enable every young officer of cavalry and infantry in due time to avail himself of the advantages of the school. To carry out thoroughly this idea would require little else than additional quarters for the increased number of students. A building but little larger than the one erected last year, now called Schofield Hall, would be sufficient for the class, while the quarters now contemplated, when built, will probably suffice for the few additional instructors that might be required.

It is not impossible that the representatives of the National Guard whose business pursuits would permit, or new graduates of colleges having military instruction, selected by the executives of the States, might be authorized to take the course of instruction under such restrictions as should be deemed proper, they bearing their own expenses.

The remodelling of the quartermaster's storehouse contiguous to Sherman Hall for academic purposes is greatly desired. It is by far the most convenient arrangement yet suggested. It has been proposed by the Quartermaster-General to build an addition to Sherman Hall extending to the rear from the center. While I would prefer the former, yet it will undoubtedly do for the present, and it is hoped that in the near future the building originally desired may be obtained. The school will without doubt continue to be enlarged and the building will become essential to its efficiency.

Last winter a double set of officers' quarters took fire and before the flames could be extinguished were so badly burned that the building was pulled down. A double set of brick should be erected on this site, and it is strongly recommended that this be done at an early day.

I would again call attention to the buildings known as Thomas and McPherson halls. They have long since been condemned and should be replaced.

I have the honor to renew my recommendation of last year that measures be taken to increase the annual appropriation for the Infantry and Cavalry School from $1,500 to $5,000. It becomes more and more evident every year that the amount allowed heretofore is entirely inadequate to meet the absolute needs of the school. Its scope is widening every year, the student class is steadily increasing in number, more facilities are required by the various departments, and the library should be largely increased. Much printing is necessary for the current business of the school, many compilations and translations, as well as original work, pass through the school press, all of which must be paid from the appropriation. One thousand five hundred dollars is too small a sum to cover the expense of an institution of such increasing value to the military service.

It is also hoped that an appropriation may be secured to build barracks and stables for a battery of artillery and that a battery or, better still, two batteries of light artillery be made a part of the garrison. The three arms of the service being thus sufficiently represented, thorough instruction of the student class as well as of the officers of the garrison in maneuvers of the three arms combined can easily be obtained.

In all the work of the school during the past year I have had the hearty cooperation of every officer connected therewith, and whatever success has been attained has been largely due to their unceasing efforts, which I here gladly recognize.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. F. TOWNSEND, Colonel Twelfth Infantry, Commandant.

The ADJUTANT-GENERAL, UNITED STATES ARMY,

Washington, D. C.

REPORT OF THE COMMANDANT OF THE UNITED STATES
ARTILLERY SCHOOL.

UNITED STATES ARTILLERY SCHOOL,

Fort Monroe, Va., August 25, 1894. SIR: I have the honor to submit; for the information of the MajorGeneral Commanding the Army, my annual report of the United States Artillery School. The report covers the second or last year of the prescribed course of instruction, embracing the subjects of steam and mechanism, electricity and mines, chemistry and explosives, military science, ballistic machines, and practical military exercises. During the fall and spring months the forenoons were given to lecture-room and laboratory instruction, and afternoons to practical artillery exercises; during the winter months, both forenoons and afternoons were given to lecture-room and laboratory instruction. The months of July and August were devoted to artillery firing practice.

STEAM AND MECHANISM.

Instruction in mechanism included the geometry of machinery, the elements of mechanism, the principles involved in the transmission of power, and problems in mechanical design.

In steam the course embraced the nature, nomenclature, and descrip. tion of the steam engine, the indicator, indicator practice, the determination of horsepower, principles and equations of thermodynamics and their application, prominent types of modern engines, fuels and combustion, the steam boiler, theory, type fixtures, etc., and the solution of numerical problems. The department is equipped with boilers, engines, and types of various machines; also a collection of carefully constructed models of machines and their parts, and an extensive assortment of plates. The instruction was made as practical as possible, every stu dent having the opportunity to operate boilers, engines, and other machines.

This instruction is of great value to an artilleryman, not only in giving him facility in reading machine drawings, and enabling him to appreciate the nature and features of apparatus and machines with which he has to deal daily, but the complicated nature of modern guns and carriages, and the application of steam and electricity to the means and methods of harbor defense, have made a knowledge of these subjects indispensable to him.

ELECTRICITY AND MINES.

The equipment of this department is improved from year to year as the limited appropriations of the school will permit, and the instruction of each succeeding class is consequently fuller and more complete than that of the preceding one. But our appropriation is entirely inadequate to providing some of the most costly machines, which are deemed essential to satisfactory instruction. The importance of this department is scarcely second to that of any other in the school, and it is earnestly hoped that the few prominent wants that are beyond the ability of the school appropriation to meet may be otherwise provided. In addition to the general subject of electricity, special attention was giver during the course to the practical management of artillery electrical appliances, the equipment and operation of mines, the principles of the dynamo, the electric motor, etc.

CHEMISTRY AND EXPLOSIVES.

This course assumes that student officers are already familiar with elementary chemistry, and instruction on that part of the subject is limited to such lectures and analytical work as are necessary to familiarize them with laboratory apparatus and methods, preparatory to the main object of the course, to wit, thorough instruction in manufacturing, testing and in the manipulation of explosives. Explosives of every class were made, tested, or analyzed by each officer, stress being laid on those adapted to military purposes and the service tests. Instruction was also given in densimetry and in the application of explosives. to military demolitions.

The laboratory of this department of the school is thoroughly organized and very fully equipped for its special work. In addition to instructing the student class, the department aims to do its share of original investigation and research in this comparatively new field of study, and in the development of a military explosive that shall meet all the conditions of the service. Results thus far obtained are exceedingly gratifying, and encourage the belief that a satisfactory solution of the problem will soon be reached.