Report of the Secretary of War.
The Report of the
Secretary of War is a very lengthy and highly important document.
It briefly refers to the operations of the army in its several departments, and says that the campaign in
Mississippi was certainly disastrous.
It is difficult to resist the impression that its disasters were not inevitable.
That a Court of Enquiry to investigate the whole campaign met in
Atlanta in September, but in consequence of the vicinity of the enemy requiring the presence of witnesses and judges at other points, it has been temporarily suspended.
It is expected soon to reassemble.
A deficiency of resources in men and provisions, rather than reverses in battle, caused the withdrawal of the army to
Middle Tennessee.
He alludes to desertion, straggling, and absenteeism, and says that the effective force of the army is but little over half, or two- thirds of the men whose names are on the muster rolls.
He recommends the repeal of the substitute and exemption provisions, and that all having substitutes be put back into the field, and that the privileges which Congress granted to put in substitutes can be regularly and constitutionally abrogated by the same power.
He says that no compact was entered into between the
Government and the person furnishing a substitute, as has been alleged, but only a privilege which Government accorded.
Instead of complaining of such abrogation, the person ought to feel gratified at what has heretofore been allowed him. He recommends an abridgement of exemptions and the conscription of them all, making details according to the wants of society at home.
He says that the three years men, when their terms expire, cannot be finally discharged, and should be retained, allowing them to choose the existing company under its present organization, in the same arm of the service.
He recommends the consolidation of such companies and regiments as are reduced below a certain complement.
He pays a glowing tribute to the heroism, endurance, and unfaltering devotion of the soldiers, and of the lamented dead who yielded their lives as sacrifices upon the altar of Liberty, and closes by saying that our very reverses showing a united and determined endurance of everything for independence, must convince the enemy of the futility of his efforts to subdue us.
