The following table shows the changes among the general staff and line officers at the post during the year: During the year the following work has been done under the post quartermaster (Lieut. Henry Jervey until March 11 and Lieut. Edgar Jadwin since that date) with funds allotted by the Quartermaster's Department, supplemented as far as practicable by the labor of the garrison: 1. The new guardhouse has been completed and occupied, and is found well adapted to the purpose for which it was designed. 2. The old guardhouse has been removed to a suitable site in the grove near the line of barracks and is being fitted up as quarters for the band sergeant. 3. The two brick barracks which were begun during the previous fiscal year have been somewhat delayed by the inefficiency of the contractors, but they are now nearly completed and will soon be occupied. A third barrack, which will complete the housing of the three companies stationed here, has recently been authorized, and will be placed under contract at an early day. 4. Some extensions and repairs have been made to the quartermas ter's wharf, roads, sidewalks, drains, and sewers, and the usual amount of labor and materials have been applied to the preservation and repair of public buildings. 5. At the suggestion of the post quartermaster, the Long Island Railroad Company has expended $200 in building a suitable landing near the station of Whitestone Landing for the small boat that runs between that point and Willets Point and Fort Schuyler. The most important improvements still unprovided for are the building of a quartermaster and commissary storehouse near the wharf, the cleaning out of the ditch bounding the Government lands on the southwest, the walling in of the ice pond, and the lighting of the post by electricity. The necessity for these improvements has been set forth in former reports, and plans and estimates have been prepared. Without going into details that have been already reported, it may be stated in brief that the cleaning out of the ditch and walling in of the ice pond would improve the sanitary condition of the post by getting rid of a swampy margin that now borders the ditch and pond, would prevent surface water from running directly into the latter, and greatly improve the quality of the ice, which is now deemed unsafe for use excepting for indirect cooling of water. The quartermaster and commissary storehouse is needed to replace old and dilapidated frame buildings, and by its location near the wharf, where all supplies are landed, to save an enormous amount of labor in hauling freight the entire length of the post, or about half a mile. The electric lighting of the post should be provided for because, with our facilities in machinery and mechanics, it can be done at a moderate cost, and would dispense with some hundreds of oil lamps, which now consume about 800 gallons of oil per month If it is proposed to adopt modern methods of lighting military posts, it is believed that it could be tried here at smaller cost for plant and with greater prospect of economical results in operating than at any other post. II.-UNITED STATES ENGINEER SCHOOL. The scope and object of the school have been fully set forth in previous reports and in the order establishing it on its present basis; the orders issued in pursuance of the latter, arranging the details of the season's work, are appended, marked A, B, and C. During the present year a class of three engineer officers completed the full course of two and one-half years, and seven officers of infantry completed their course of torpedo instruction. III.-BATTALION OF ENGINEERS. The law provides for five companies of engineer troops, having an aggregate strength of 752 enlisted men, officered by detail from the Corps of Engineers. At present only four companies with a total strength of 500 enlisted men are allowed to be recruited. The aggregate strength of the Battalion of Engineers on June 30, 1893, including Company E, stationed at West Point, N. Y., was 18 commissioned officers and 418 enlisted men. During the year Companies A, B, and C have been stationed at Willets Point; Company D exists in name only; Company E has been stationed at West Point, to assist in the practical instruction of cadets of the Military Academy, in building military bridges, sapping, mining, and signaling. Second-Lieut. Edgar Jadwin, Corps of Engineers, was relieved from duty with Company B, Battalion of Engineers, and appointed acting battalion quartermaster to date March 11, 1893, in Orders No. 26, Headquarters, Battalion of Engineers, Willets Point, March 3, 1893. Appointed acting assistant quartermaster post of Willets Point, to date March 11, 1893, and assistant commissary of subsistance, post af Willets Point, to date March 1, 1893, in Orders No. 38, post of Willets Point, New York Harbor, March 3, 1893. Appointed quartermaster Battalion of Engineers, March 11, 1893, in Orders No. 32, Headquarters Battalion of Engineers, Willets Point, March 11, 1893, as authorized by letter from the Secretary of War, dated War Department, Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, D. C., March 18, 1893. Second-Lieut. Jay J. Morrow, Corps of Engineers, was transferred from Company A to Company C, Battalion of Engineers, October 11, 1892, in Orders No. 110, Headquarters Battalion of Engineers, Willets Point, October 10, 1892. Second-Lieut. Charles S. Bromwell, Corps of Engineers, was relieved from duty with Company A, Battalion of Engineers, May 30, 1893, in Orders No. 37, Headquarters Battalion of Engineers, Willets Point, May 30, 1893, in compliance with Special Orders No. 117, Headquarters Army, Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, D. C., May 24, 1893; assigned to duty with Company E, Battalion of Engineers, same order. The following table shows the changes that have taken place in the personnel of the officers during the year, viz: During the year recruits for the battalion have been obtained by enlistments at Willets Point and West Point, and by assignment on their own application from recruiting rendezvous or other branches of the service. An engineer sergeant was detailed to recruit for the Battalion of Engineers on February 17, 1893, and was attached by the superintendent of recruiting service to rendezvous No. 146 Park Row, New York City. The following is a statement of changes among the enlisted men of the battalion during the past year: Gain: Recruits from depot.. Enlisted in battalion (Willets Point, 35; West Point, 28). From desertion 26 63 31 by General Orders 80, Adjutant-General's Office, series 1890 57 21 Transferred. Retired Died.... Deserted.. Total loss.. 154 The net loss, 19 men, is due to the operation of General Orders 80 and 81, series 1890. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1893, 110 men of the Battalion of Engineers were entitled to be discharged under the provisions of par. 2, General Orders No. 80, Adjutant-General's Office, 1890, 57 of whom availed themselves of this privilege. Seventy-two enlisted men were on furlough during the year, under the provisions of General Orders No. 80, Adjutant-General's Office, The following table gives a comparative statement of recruiting, desertions, etc., during the past nine years: It will be seen from this table that the number of enlisted men is still above the average for the past nine years, that there has been a falling off of about one-fourth in the number of trials for minor offenses, while the number of desertions is less than at any time except the year 1891, and the number of sick and of men in confinement are below the average. The following statement shows the number of different men tried by court-martial and other facts relative to the trials: The combined mess for the three companies and band has continued in successful operation, and is now under charge of Lieut. J. J. Morrow, acting under the immediate supervision of the mess council. Every effort has been made to secure a plentiful supply and variety of wholesome and well-cooked food for the men. The post exchange, under charge of Lieut. Spencer Cosby, has also been in successful operation, and a considerable increase has been made in the variety of articles kept on sale. The experience of the past year has still further confirmed the opinion expressed in former reports that the present system of discharging men should be abolished and the term of enlistment reduced to three years with a reënlistment furlough of one or two months, as formerly. The assumption that any man of ordinary prudence and intelligence knows what he is doing when he signs a contract to serve the United States five years, under the present complicated system of retained pay, detained pay, extra duty pay, length of service pay, commutation of rations and clothing allowances, which vary from year to year, etc., which often call for the most careful study by those who have had years of experience in such matters to ascertain what a man's rights are, is certainly a violent assumption, and the probability is that in nine cases out of ten the recruit takes the oath blindly or at best with only a vague notion of what he is to receive or how long he will be contented to remain in service. It is not likely that an ordinary farm hand or mechanic would bind himself to serve the best employer in the country for five years under such terms. The comparatively simple operation of getting a man out of the serv ice at the end of three years, which could be accomplished in a few minutes at the post under a three years term of enlistment law, now requires a correspondence which, including the two applications and their indorsements, two sets of printed orders and receipts and ration papers, involves an expenditure of more than a quire of paper for each man who receives his furlough and discharge. This of course would be a small matter if there were any substantial advantage to be gained by it, but on the contrary the effect of the present system is to create uncertainty and uneasiness on the part of the men as well as of the officers. During the past year no less than seventy-two men have been absent three months each, during which time their comrades have had to perform their duties, and their places could not be filled because it was not known whether they would return or take their discharge at the end of their furlough. In most cases these men took their furlough, not because they wanted one, but in order to accept employment elsewhere and thus draw two salaries. The demoralizing effect of such a system is too apparent to require statement. The principle of buying discharges is also believed to be based on what should be an entirely erroneous assumption, viz, that the soldier has in some way been entrapped into selling his time for less than its market value. The soldier's profession is supposed to be an honorable one, and yet he is classed in this respect with criminals who "want to get out," while the lowest scrub-out in the Government employ would not only smile at a proposition to buy his way out of the service, but would know that there were plenty of people ready to take his place. The trouble is that the Government has been trying to get soldiers at a little below the market price and with the usual result of such experiments. If this were not so there would be no trouble in getting plenty of recruits, and not only that, but a discharge from the service would cease to be a "favor;" and instead of being obliged to take every one who will pass inspection, the service would be enabled to select its men just as is done in civil service. This state of things was nearly realized in the Battalion of Engineers just before the laws in question went into effect, and Company E at West Point actually had a number of applicants waiting for vacancies. The great advantage to the service of such a state of things can hardly |