Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1874 — Annual Army Reports. [ARTICLE]

Annual Army Reports.

Washington. Nov. 9. OEN. SHERMAN. Gett. Sherman’s annual report to the Secretary of War shows the total number of enlisted men in the army on Oct. 15 to have been 26,441. It estimates that this numbee will probably be reduced through natural causes by the Ist of January, 1875, to the 25,000 allowed by law. It deprecates the inadequacy of so small an army for the demands of so large an area of territory as it has to be scattered over, involving the necessity of withdrawing troops from one department to meet the requirements of others a long distance away. It compliments the high efficiency of Gen, Sheridan and his subordinate officers in maintaining comparative peace in the Indian country. I t say s’the reports of the commanding officers defhonstrate that the small army of the United States, called a peace establishment, is the hardest-worked body of men in this or any country. The discipline and behavior of the officers and men have been worthy of all praise; and whether employed on the extreme and distant frontier, or in aiding civil officers on the execution~of~ civil pfdcessesThave been a model for the imitation of all good men. In regard to the removal of his headquarters to St. Louis he says: “I am prepared to execute the duties that maybe devolved on me by proper authority. Here I am centrally located, and should occasion arise I can personally proceed to any point on this continent where my services are needed.” . GEN. SHERIDAN. Lieut.-Gen. Sheridan, in his annual report, touches slightly- upon Gen. Custer’s Black Hills expedition, which it pronounces a successful reconnois sance. The country of the Black Hills was found to be much better than was expected,-with plenty of good timber and considerable good soil at high altitudes and an abundant supply of good water and grass,. Some gold was found near Harney’s Peak, but of its abundance there is at present no reliable information. Sufficient time could not be given by an expedition such as that of Gen. Custer’s to prospect and determine its quantity. Gen. Sheridan again recommends the establishment of a large military post in the Black Hill country. Of the Indian troubles Gen. Sheridan says: “I respectfully differ with Gen. Pope as to the chief cause of these Indian troubles, and attribute it to the immunity with which the tribes have been treated. In all their raids into Texas for the past three years their reservations have furnished them the supplies' with which to make the raids and sheltered them from pursuit when they returned with their scalps and plunder. No man of close observation, _it seems-to ine, can travel across the great plains and Wyoming to Texas, and see the established ranches, with their hundreds of thousands of head of cattle, sheep and horses, togetherw-ith the families of the owners, and reasonably think that these people, so much exposed andhavingsuch valuable interests, are desirous of provoking Indian wars’ There was a time, possibly, when the population of the Indian frontier mayhave been desirous of Indian troubles, but that has passed long ago.”