Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

To which should be added the further sum of $19,950 due from the United States, but not yet received, for the earnings of the Steamer Pembroke, which amount was settled on conference with the United States Quartermaster-General, as that justly due, and of which payment ought immediately to be made to the Commonwealth, and is daily expected.

If we consider as cash this sum of $19,950, and also the $43,657.13 due from Ohio, New Hampshire, and the United States, on account of sales of ordnance which they needed and we were able to supply, these in addition to the $987,263.54 already stated, make an aggregate of $1,050,860.67 of receipts, and deducting that sum from $3,343,694.41, the amount of the disbursements at the close of the year, our net liability, on account of military expenditures incurred during the year 1861, under the provisions of chapter 216 of the Acts of that year, is thus far $2,292,833.74.

Military.

For the details of our military conduct and expenditure, which are impossible of recital here, I respectfully refer to the full Report of the Adjutant

[ocr errors]

General which is already in press, attended by those of the Quartermaster-General, the CommissaryGeneral, and the Surgeon-General, and the Report of the Committee of three Councillors whom I appointed early in the year to supervise military contracts, and by whom nearly all the contracts for Quartermaster's supplies were actually made. The uniform of one regiment (the 12th, Colonel Webster,) will not be found in the report of the Committee; but it will appear in that of the QuartermasterGeneral, since although it was paid for as a military expense of the State, the regiment at its own request selected a particular uniform and contractor. Certain items belonging to bureaus not existing at first, for that reason do not appear in their accounts, but elsewhere. Called on from time to time, always without premonition, suddenly and after we had been discouraged to expect more requisitions-it has been impossible to arrange with satisfactory forecast a system of operations, such as the history of the year, could it have been foreseen by all parties, would have called for.

But, with alacrity and zeal, and with unquestioning submission to the wants of the Department of War, and at its special and repeated requests, we have devoted ourselves to raising, recruiting, training, encamping, subsisting, arming, equipping and supplying, with all the arms, armament and warlike munitions," and with the uniforms, camp equipage, and transpor

tation known to the regulations of the army, the
volunteers demanded of the State. And the endeavor
has been, so far as it could be done, to conform to
such regulations. But we could not avoid adapting
military movements somewhat to our own militia
system, and to the opinions and pre-ocupations of the
people; else the great movement would have been
discouraged, and the ranks slowly, or never, filled.
The State has contributed five regiments of infantry,
one battery of artillery, and one battalion of rifles,
of her militia, to the three months service. To the
three years service she has sent as volunteers, twenty-
four regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, five batte-
ries of artillery, two companies of sharpshooters, and
an infantry battalion of five companies. Six com-
panies more became attached to two regiments from
the State of New York. Besides expenditures on

these objects, are the investments in purchasing and
expenses of running the steamers Cambridge and
Pembroke in the public service.
These steamers

have been sold, and their cost and expenses covered
by the prices obtained, and by the adjustments made
with the Federal Government for their services as
transports and gunboats.

By chapter 21 of the Acts passed at the extra session of Congress on the 27th of July last, provision was made for refunding to the States the amounts of their military expenditures in behalf of the United States; and it is under this Act that we have already

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]

been reimbursed to the amount of $775,000, and our accounts have been presented to the Federal auditors for all the balance to that date. Our subsequent military expenditures have been made on consultation with and at the request of the Secretary of War, who asked,-to use his own language under date of September 5th, our "active co-operation in the organization of an army sufficiently powerful to crush the Southern rebellion and forever set at rest the question of secession," and stated that in his opinion "the best method" was for us "to proceed with the organization of regiments as authorized, the expense of which will be paid from time to time by requisitions from you, accompanied with proper certificates and original bills." By an arrangement which I have effected with the officers of the Federal Treasury Department, certified copies of the bills are received by them instead of the originals, and our full accounts have accordingly been prepared and presented for audit up to a recent date.

There is also included in these expenses the cost of three hundred and fifty blankets and suits of clothing sent to Richmond for the use of our Massachusetts men there held as prisoners of war, and suffering privations both indecent and inhuman. The particulars of their necessities were first learned through a letter of the Adjutant of the Twentieth Regiment, himself one of the prisoners. Without delay I caused these articles to be sent, and am happy to learn by information

from Colonel William Raymond Lee that they have been received. I also established a credit in favor of the Adjutant for the use of these captives, to the amount of one thousand dollars, for the purpose of affording means to procure, if possible, medicines for the sick, and some alleviations for the feeble, and little stores not easily sent or anticipated. These last acts are not authorized by any law; save by the law written on our hearts; and they are submitted to your generous candor.

An elaborate report, with tables of the utmost minuteness, has been prepared by our present able and indefatigable Master of Ordnance, covering all the details of the business, property, and expenditure of his bureau. Its expenditures have been $562,488.30 -of which $251,339.96 were paid for Enfield rifles, and $23,617.83 for English infantry equipments. The balance is made up of American infantry equipments, ordnance, ordnance stores of every description, and wagons and caissons for the battery companies, freight, repairs, and the like. All regiments, and companies, whether of infantry or artillery, both for three months and for three years service, furnished by the State to the General Government, have, with the exception of one battery, received all their armament from the Commonwealth. The horse equipments and sabres for the cavalry were received from the United States. Of the troops in the three years service, fourteen regiments are armed with the Enfield rifled

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »