War, confided to the efficiency board of the office, in an order of which the following is a copy: "RECORD AND PENSION OFFICE, "WAR DEPARTMENT, "Washington City, June 15, 1894. "With a view to preparing for the reduction which must be made in the clerical force of this office under the terms of the pending legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation bill, the efficiency board of the office will carefully examine the records of work, deportment, and attendance of all employees of the office, and will report as soon as practicable the names of those who, in the opinion of the board, should be discharged or reduced in grade so as to meet the requirements of the pending bill. "In order that no injustice may be done to anyone, the investigation will be made as thorough and exhaustive as possible in each case, and to this end the board will be given free access to any and all records of the office, and it is authorized to call upon clerks in charge of divisions and sections for such information as it may deem necessary. "A record of honorable military service, or of long and faithful service in the Department, should be given great weight in favor of any employee, and no person having such a record should be recommended for discharge unless it is apparent that his retention in office will work manifest injury to the public service. "F. C. AINSWORTH, Colonel, United States Army, Chief, Record and Pension office." The board, composed of eight of the principal clerks, a majority of whom are themselves old soldiers and may fairly be presumed to be in sympathy with their fellow clerks and comrades, faithfully obeyed the instructions given, and in making up its discharge list added five points to the final efficiency figure of every clerk with a record of honorable military or naval service, thus giving clerks of this class a very great advantage in rating over other clerks having the same actual record of efficiency but not having a record of service in the Army or Navy. The result of this liberal allowance in their favor was to save from discharge many old soldiers who would otherwise have fallen below the line to which discharges had to be carried. There is probably no bureau of the Government in which a greater proportionate number of ex-soldiers is employed than in this, but as a result of the method of selection adopted only 33 of the 140 clerks discharged in order to reduce the clerical force to the limit allowed by law were of this class. Since the date of the last report a material change has taken place in the organization of the office, its former divisions having, in conformity with orders of the Secretary of War of May 15 and June 21, 1894, been consolidated into seven, with designations and assignment of duties and records as follows: 1. Mail and Record Division, the duties of which include the receipt and mailing of all communications, the press-copying of letters in answer to the same, the briefing of the official mail, and the preparation and custody of the record and index cards pertaining to the current correspondence. 2. Correspondence and Examining Division, the business of which includes the drafting of correspondence and the examination and submission to the chief of the office of all questions requiring special administrative action. 3. Regimental Records Division, having in charge the military records of officers and enlisted men of volunteer regiments and other minor volunteer organizations and the preparation of reports therefrom. 4. Archives Division, having charge of the general military records of the volunteer armies, and the confederate archives, and the preparation of reports therefrom. 5. Medical Division, having charge of the medical and hospital records and the preparation of reports therefrom. 6. Seventeenth Street Branch, having charge of the records stored in the building which it occupies, and of the work of repairing and consolidating rolls, returns, books, and other records requiring such treatment. 7. Tenth Street Branch, having charge of the work of reproducing and preserving the records of the volunteer armies by the index-record card system. The building on Tenth street known as the Ford's Theater building, which was wrecked in June, 1893, with such disastrous results to some of the clerks employed therein, has been fully restored, under the authority of Congress, in accordance with a plan recommended by a board of engineer officers for the purpose of making the building entirely safe and putting it in good sanitary condition. With its improved lighting apparatus it is well adapted to clerical purposes. It was turned over to this office in the latter part of July last by the engineer officer under whose direction the repairs were made, and was reoccupied on the 28th of that month. With the exception of relieving the injured from the operations of the law restricting the amount of sick leave that may be granted with pay, no provision has yet been made by Congress for the sufferers by the disaster of last year, but the question of compensation is now in the hands of a joint commission of the two Houses, and it is hoped that as a result of their deliberations full justice will be done these deserving people. Very respectfully, F. C. AINSWORTH, Colonel, United States Army, Chief, Record and Pension Office. The SECRETARY OF WAR. REPORT OF PUBLICATION OF WAR RECORDS. WAR DEPARTMENT, WAR RECORDS OFFICE, Washington, August 14, 1894. SIR: The Board of Publication of the Official Records of the Rebellion begs leave to submit the following report of its operations during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894: Eleven thousand copies of Volume XLI, Parts III and IV; XLII, IV; XLII, Parts I, II, and III; XLIII, Parts I and II; XLIV and XLV, Parts I and II, have been printed and distributed during the year ending June 30, 1894, these volumes bringing the work down to the end of the year 1864, and to the opening of the final campaign of the war. The volumes covering the operations of the Appomattox campaign of 1865 are in type, and the manuscript of the volumes necessary to complete Series I is ready for the printer. The first volume of Series II is in type, and is now being indexed. The remaining volumes of the series are well advanced toward completion Ten parts of the Atlas, including Plates LXXXI to CXXX (Parts 17 to 27), have been engraved, printed, and distributed during the year. and work upon the nine remaining parts is well on toward completion, Twenty-one volumes of the edition authorized by the act of August 5, 1892, have been printed and delivered to the document rooms of Congress for distribution, in accordance with the terms of that act. The examination of files and archives, and the work of selecting, copying, and comparing material for the remaining volumes of the several series has been continued without interruption during the entire fiscal year. The following notes of work accomplished in the several departments of publication will convey an idea of the variety and amount of labor required in connection with the preparation and publication of the several volumes: One hundred and twenty-one thousand two hundredand fifty-two books have been received and 115,964 have been distributed; 110,000 copies of Parts 17 to 27 of the Atlas to accompany the Official Records of the Rebellion have been received, and 109,786 have been sold and distributed; 11,082 letters, cards, etc., have been received, and 4,017 letters, cards, circulars, etc., have been mailed in response to inquiries; 120,000 labels have been prepared, and 233,376 labels have been compared and verified during the year. During the same period 9 books have been indexed wholly or in part (460,000 cards having been used for this purpose), and the general index to the work has been carried forward to such an extent as to warrant the first volume being put in type during the current calendar year; 59,462 |