*The regiment being understood to consist of one Light and eleven Heavy companies.

being taken from the Subalterns, and accounted for in their several regiments as belonging to Companies, are excluded, as regimental Stuff officers, from the columns "total commissioned," and "aggregate."

(e) Under the 4th section of the act of April 29, 1812, "making further provision for the Corps of Engi neers," one Brevet Second Lieutenant is allowed to every "company." The number authorized is, consequently, one hundred and ninety-nine. The number, now attached to the Army, is twenty-seven. (f) By the act of April 5, 1882, section 2d, "providing for the organization of the Ordnance Department," the number of Ordnance Sergeants cannot exceed "one for each military post." The number,. actually in service, is seventy-three.

(9) By the act of August 16, 1856, section 2d, "providing for a necessary increase and better organization of the Medical and Hospital Department of the Army," the number of Hospital Stewards cannot exceed "one for each military post." The number, actually in service, is sixty-eight.

(h) Two companies in the 1st and 2d, and one in each of the other regiments of artillery, being equipped as Light Artillery, are allowed, in consequence, sixty-four," instead of "forty-two" privates per company. See act "to increase the rack and file of the Army," &c., approved June 17, 1850,

section 1st.

(i) By the act of June 17, 1850, "to increase the rank and file of the Army," &c., section 2d, the President is authorized, whenever the exigencies of the service require it, to increase to seventy-four, the number of privates in any company, "serving at the several military posts on the Western frontier, and at remote and distant stations." In the table, the minimum, or fixed, organization is given, viz.: fifty privates to a company of Dragoons, sixty-four to a company of Light Artillery and Riflemen, and forty-two to the Artillery and Infantry. If all the companies belonging to "regiments" (195) were serving at distant stations, the "total enlisted" would be 17,502, and the aggregate" 18,587.

The organization by corps limits the number of officers in the army, but not their rank; the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, being authorized by law to confer rank by brevet for gallant and meritorious services (see BREVET). Four Surgeons and four Assistants have been added to the Medical Department, and one Signal Officer created, with the rank of Major, since the preparation of these tables.

The most glaring deficiency in the military legislation of the United States, is the want of a GENERAL LAW, regulating the organization of all troops that Congress may see fit to raise, so that, upon adding to, or diminishing, the public force in any emergency, it will be only necessary to prescribe what number of men are to be added or taken away. This general law should embrace general officers, staff corps, and departments, engineers, and regiments of cavalry, artillery, and infantry; it should establish rules of promotion and appointment; it should regulate the recruiting service; it should provide for the repression of military crimes and disorders; it should not fail to stimulate the appetite for rewards; it should make just rules concerning captures, which would recognize the rights of captors; it should regulate the indemnification for losses; and it should provide for the organization of a suitable board, which would take advantage of all improvements in the military art and suggest, from time to time, such modifications of the general law as might appear just and proper. In respect to Army Organization, there are two acts of Congress of the general character here suggested. One, an act to regulate the medical establishment, approved March 2, 1799; and the second, an act for the better organizing of the troops of the United States, and for other purposes, approved March 3, 1799. Both of these acts were drawn by Alexander Hamilton, as he explained in a letter to the Secretary of War, "as permanent rules to attach to all provisions of law for the increase or diminution of the public force." Subsequent legislation has, however, without providing any other permanent rule regulating the organization in respect to general officers, staff corps, and departments, &c., according to the increase or diminution of force, almost entirely superseded the provisions of the remarkable acts here referred to. (See ARTICLES OF WAR.)

ARMY REGULATIONS-a book so called, published in the name of the President of the United States "for the government of all concerned." The Constitution provides that "Congress shall have power to make rules for the government and regulation of the Land and Naval forces." The only acts of Congress in force, authorizing the President to make regulations, better defining the powers and duties of officers, are contained in the 5th section of the act of March 3, 1813, and the 9th section of the act approved April 26, 1816. The first of these acts is an act for the better organization of the general staff of the army, and the second relates (with the exception of the last section, concerning forage and private servants) to the same subject. By the 5th section of the act of 1813, it is provided, "That it shall be the

duty of the Secretary of the War Department, and he is hereby authorized, to prepare general regulations, better defining and prescribing the respective duties and powers of the several officers in the adjutantgeneral, inspector-general, quartermaster-general, and commissary of ordnance departments, of the topographical engineers, of the aides of generals, and generally of the general and regimental staff; which regulations, when approved by the President of the United States, shall be respected and obeyed, until altered or revoked by the same authority. And the said general regulations, thus prepared and approved, shall be laid before Congress at their next session."

Remarking here, that the regulations to be prepared and approved refer only to the powers and duties of the officers of the several staff departments, enumerated in the act, it follows that no other regulations made by the President can derive any force whatever from this act. The 9th section of the act of 1816 therefore only continued this then existing power of the President in providing "That the several officers of the staff shall respectively receive the pay and emoluments, and retain all the privileges, secured to the staff of the Army, by the act of March 3, 1813, and not incompatible with the provisions of this act : and that the regulations in force before the reduction of the Army be recognized, as far as the same shall be found applicable to the service; subject, however, to such alterations as the Secretary of War may adopt, with the approbation of the President." It would seem, therefore, that whatever may be contained in the President's Army regulations of a legislative character concerning officers of the Army, not belonging to staff departments, must, if valid, be a legitimate deduction from some positive law, or depend for its legality upon the exercise of authority delegated to the constitutional commander-in-chief or other military commander, in the rules made by Congress for the government of the Army. Congress has delegated to the President, authority to prescribe the uniform cf the Army; authority to establish the ration; and besides the authority given by law to other military commanders, he also has been authorized to relieve, in special cases, an inefficient military commander from duty with any command; to assign any senior to duty with mixed corps, so that the command may fall by law on such senior in rank; to limit the discretion of commanding officers in special cases, in regard to what is needful for the service; and hence also he has been given authority to carve out special commands from general commands, in particular cases; (62d Article of War.) These are all-important functions, but they do not authorize special cases to be made general rules, and it is much to be regretted

that the lines of separation between regulations and the orders of the commander-in-chief have not been kept distinct. (See COMMAND; CONGRESS; OBEDIENCE; ORDERS. Consult opinions of Attorneys-general, particularly the opinion of Mr. Berrien, July 18, 1839.)

ARREARS OF PAY. The troops shall be paid in such manner that the arrears shall, at no time, exceed two months, unless the circumstances of the case shall render it unavoidable; (Act March 16, 1802; Act March 3, 1813.) This provision of law has been strangely executed by never paying troops oftener than once in two months, and not unfrequently neglecting to pay them for a much longer time.

ARREST IN ORDER TO TRIAL. Before an officer or soldier, or other person subject to military law, can be brought to trial, he must be charged with some crime or offence against the rules and articles of war, and placed in arrest. The articles of war direct that whenever any officer shall be charged with a crime, he shall be arrested and confined in his barracks, quarters, or tent, and deprived of his sword by the commanding officer. And that "non-commissioned officers and soldiers, charged with crimes, shall be confined until tried by a court-martial, or released by proper authority;" (ARTS. 77, 78.) The arrest of an officer is generally executed through a staff-officer; by an adjutant, if ordered by the commanding officer of a regiment; or by an officer of the general staff, if ordered by a superior officer; and sometimes by the officer with whom the arrest originates. On being placed in arrest, an officer resigns his sword. If this form be sometimes omitted, the custom is invariably observed, of an officer in arrest not wearing a sword. By the custom of the army, it is usual, except in capital cases, to allow an officer in arrest the limits of the garrison or even greater limits, at the discretion of the commanding officer, who regulates his conduct by the dictates of propriety and humanity. A noncommissioned officer or soldier is confined in charge of a guard; but, by the custom of the service, the non-commissioned staff and sergeants may be simply arrested. The articles of war declare, " that no officer or soldier, who shall be put in arrest or imprisonment, shall continue in his confinement more than eight days, or until such time as a courtmartial can be conveniently assembled; (ART. 79.) The latter part of this clause evidently allows a latitude, which is capable of being abused; but, as in a free country there is no wrong without a remedy, an action might be brought against the offender in a civil court, (See INJURIES,) if the mode of redress for all officers and soldiers, who conceive themselves injured by their commanding officer,. be not sufficient. (ARTS. 34, 35.)