(regimental staff officers not included), was vested in the President. The effect of the law now proposed would have been to extend the President's power to every commissioned officer in the service, his action in every case being subject to the advice and consent of the Senate. The bill which was introduced by Mr. Wilkinson was referred to the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia, and by it was returned to the Senate on the 17th of December, accompanied by an adverse report.

The views of the Military Committee, in relation to the constitutionality of the bill, are presented in the following extracts from its report:

No fact is more clearly deducible from the Constitution than this, that there should always exist in the country two different and distinct classes of military organization; the one, a permanent organization, to be raised, supported, armed, and disciplined by, and to belong to and represent, the whole Union, as a Federal army; the other, a temporary organization, to be raised by the respective States whenever the exigencies of public danger in the obstruction of the laws, the raising of insurrections, the fact of invasion should necessitate the use of a larger force than that possessed by the Federal Government, to be called into being only upon extraordinary occasions, to preserve their distinct character as volunteers or militiamen during the term of their service, and to be disbanded again when the occasion which called them forth had passed away.

The absolute and continually existing necessity of an army to maintain the power and dignity of the nation; the constitutional prohibition that “no State shall, without the consent of Congress, keep troops," and the express authority granted by the Constitution to Congress "to raise and support armies" are all confirmatory beyond question of the right, power, and duty of the Government to maintain a regular standing army as a Federal establishment; while the clause of the Constitution which provides for "calling forth the militia" and for their arming, discipline, and governance by Congress, in "reserving to the States, respectively, the appointment of the officers and the authority of training" them while "employed in the service of the United States, mark the latter a fundamentally separate and distinct organization and one which cannot under the Constitution be amalgamated with and made a part of the Regular Army.

The committee therefore are of the opinion that, as the volunteers were recruited under State authority and constitute a part of the militia system of the country, the clause of the bill which provides that the "officers, noncommissioned officers, musicians, and privates of volunteers shall form and hereafter be considered a part of the Regular Army of the United States," is in violation of the Constitution and cannot become law.a

As the committee admitted that Congress has the supreme right to "raise and support armies:" furthermore, as all the volunteers, except those first called out by the President, were raised by the Government of the United States, exclusively under the authority granted in the two laws of July 22 and 25, it is difficult to see how, by any process of reasoning, the volunteers could be considered as "recruited under States authority," and therefore as constituting "a part of the militia system of the country."

If the views of the committee are correct, then the use of the vol. unteers in the Mexican War was unconstitutional; if volunteers were militia, then every man ordered into Mexico had a right to halt at the Rio Grande, or to refuse to disembark at Vera Cruz. But without any fixed policy the action of Congress from time to time has been directly contrary to the views of the committee. When war was imminent with France, after authorizing a provisional army of 10,000 men, the President, by the third section of the act of May 28, 1798, was to accept any number of companies of volunteers and to appoint their commissioned officers. The same authority was specially con

a Frank Moore's Rebellion Record, vol. 11, p. 119, Doc. 18.

ferred by the act of July 6, 1812, and was again repeated during the Mexican war. These instances, to which others might be added, establish the fact that the practice of Congress has not conformed to the views of the committee. Nevertheless, as its rights are still questioned, wisdom suggests they be definitely settled before the enemies of the country again surround the National capital.

If, under the same power, Congress has not the right to raise an army of volunteers, independent of the States, then for the future, volunteers only can be employed "to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions." If, under the power to "raise and support armies," Congress cannot officer an army of volunteers, then its action in authorizing the President to commission the general and staff officers of volunteers, and also to appoint officers in regiments belonging to States whose governors were disloyal, was also unconstitutional."

TROOPS EMPLOYED IN 1861.

The mistaken economy which in time of peace discourages preparations for war became apparent before the close of the year 1861.

With no military operations encouraging the hope of a speedy suppression of the rebellion, statistics show that the total number of men obtained in 1861 was:

Under call of April 15, for 75,000 militia .......

Under call of May 3, and the laws of July 22 and 25, regulars, volunteers, and seamen.

Total..

93, 326

714, 231

b 807, 557

Of the whole number of men obtained under these calls there were in the field on the 1st of January, 1862:

Regulars..

Volunteers

Aggregate

22, 425

553, 492

€575, 917

If to this number be added the 93,326 militia, the total number of troops under pay at different times during the year 1861 amounts to 668,545.

This question should not be dismissed without further reflection, for on its solution may yet depend the fate of the Union. It has already been stated that for want of a compulsory system of recruitment, the number of men who served in the Regular Army dwindled to but one-third of 1 per cent of the total number of troops who were called to the national defense of the nation.

To say that in bringing about this result the intelligent men composing Congress were actuated by a morbid fear of standing armies, would be a judgment no less ridiculous than insulting.

The cause of their action lies deeper. It now turns out that they did not fully comprehend the theory of our Government; they did not realize that adherence to principles sanctioned by the Articles of Confederation, but rejected by the Fathers, amounted to heresy under the Constitution.

They did not, nor did their successors during the war, rise to a full conception of its powers to "raise and support armies," but, suffering themselves to be entangled or restrained by views wholly false or fallacious, they adopted a middle or volunteer system, which from the first proved a bloody and disastrous compromise between so-called "State sovereignty" on the one hand and national unity on the other. ↳ Report of Provost-Marshal-General, vol. 1, p. 160.

e Report of Provost-Marshal-General, vol. 1, p. 102.

At this time the two laws of July 22 and 25 were still construed as sanctioning but 500,000 men. See report of Provost-Marshal-General, vol. 1, p. 160.

The troops obtained under the foregoing calls were organized as follows:

Exclusive of the militia, the infantry of the Army of 1861 exceeded by 93 battalions the infantry of the field army of Germany on a war footing, while the total force, regulars, volunteers, and militia, exceeded the total field army of Germany by 119,963 men. But, unlike the army of Germany, there were no reserves, depot, or garrison troops to supply the casualties of battle or repair the ravages of disease.

The consequences of these defects of military legislation did not become apparent till the year 1862.

EXPENDITURES FOR THE YEAR 1861.

The expenditure for the War Department for the fiscal year 1860-61, was $22,981,150.44, showing a decrease as compared with the years 1858 and 1859.@

The expenditures for the next year, 1862, show the cost of maintaining a vast army in a state of preparation for a period of nearly eight months.

The appropriations for the Regular Army for the year were so meagre that on February 25, 1862, additional appropriations for our military forces were made aggregating $208,392,488.77.

As a commentary on our economy in peace these appropriations under the principal headings were as follows:

Pay of two and three years' volunteers..
Subsistence for the same.

Transportation of Army and its supplies

Clothing and camp equipage

Regular supplies and Quartermaster's Department

Ordnance and ordnance stores....

Purchase of arms and ordnance stores.

Medical and Hospital Department........

Reimbursement of States for expenses incurred on account of volunteers

$50, 000, 000. 00 26, 668, 902. 00

14, 881, 000. 00 12, 173, 546. 77 76, 500, 000. 00 1,924,000.00 7,500.00 1,000,000.00

15, 000, 000.00

This appropriation was supplemented by another on the 14th of May, 1862, for additional pay to volunteers amounting to $30,000,000. These were not the only appropriations on account of the War Department during the year 1862, the total expenditures of which aggregated $389,173,562.29."

a The expenditures for the fiscal year 1857-58, amounted to $25,485,383.60, and for the fiscal year 1858-59, $23,243,822.38.

As our inability to promptly subdue the Rebellion was due to faults in our military system, to the above should be added the increased expenditure of the Navy in 1862, which amounted to $30,253,197.75, making a total war expenditure of $419,426,760.04."

Such a sum mostly expended before our armies were in condition to strike effective blows foreshadowed a national debt from which a century of taxation will scarcely relieve us.

a Report of Secretary of the Treasury, 1877, p. 14.

CHAPTER XIX.

CAMPAIGN OF 1862.

The military operations of the year, both in the East and the West, may be divided into three distinct periods. In the first our armies took the offensive, in the second the defensive, and in the third they again resumed the offensive.

FIRST PERIOD.

In the East during the latter part of March, the Army of the Potomac, commanded by General McClellan, transferred its base from Washington to Fort Monroe; advanced up the peninsula on the 4th of April; engaged in the siege of Yorktown from April 5 to May 4; fought the battle of Williamsburg May 5, West Point May 7, Hanover Court House May 27, and Seven Pines or Fair Oaks May 31 and June 1.

The only other battle in the East was that of Winchester, fought by General Shields, on the 23d of March. In all these battles the Union troops were victorious. The general position of the enemy at the beginning of this period was with his right near Aquia Creek, blockading the Potomac; his center at Manassas, and his left in the Shenandoah Valley. He was also in possession of Norfolk, whence on the 8th of March the Confederate ironclad Merrimac proceeded to Hampton Roads and sank the sloop-of-war Cumberland and frigate Congress. The next day she resumed the attack, but, defeated by the Monitor, was compelled to return to Norfolk. The position of the enemy at the end of the period was with his main army around Richmond, his left under Stonewall Jackson, in the Shenandoah Valley, both forces being under the command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. The position of the Union troops at the close of the first period was as follows:

June 1, the Army of the Potomac, about 100,000, present for duty, on both banks of the Chickahominy, within 6 miles of Richmond; May 26, General McDowell, commanding Department of the Rappahannock, with 41,000 men at Fredericksburg, his advance but 15 miles from the right of the Army of the Potomac; May 24, General Banks, commanding Department of the Shenandoah, with 6,000 men at Strasburg; Major-General Fremont, commanding the Mountain Department, with 15,000 men at Franklin, W. Va., one brigade within 10 miles of Staunton; General Wool at Fort Monroe and Norfolk with 10,000. Besides troops in Virginia, General Burnside was in North Carolina with an expedition of 11,500 men; General Thomas W. Sherman, with another expedition fitted out in the previous November, was in South Carolina.