Indians in Montana

              ARMI
GAZETTE OF THE REGULAR
T
NAVY
JOURNAL.
AND VOLUNTEER FORCES.
VOLl'MK V. � xumuk 1� WHOLE NUMBER
19. I
m
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1867.
i      SIX DOLLARS VKR YKAK.
� SIN4II.K tol'IEd, �I KTKEN � E NTH.
lav and Transportation .
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M. �. LLU, 8.........
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Indtana In Montala......
Th� ����...............
New Book�.......t......
Foreign Corraiipondahe�. l'anuiim-l of Ih. Indian Puti�
NIMHEK SIXTEEN.
Corel��  Military arnl   Naval
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j44:Ot'it�rat Orant and Army Re-
34*   ductlon......................152
LWTn� Navy....................Xf
��|���� IVraonal...............sm
iiefourtn-martlaj................264
240)Our Men of War..............2m
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Comnuaaion................�1 Navy limette.................2&h
.2i* The' National l.u.r.l...
Sunday in Iba Array.
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PAY   aNI)  TRANSPORTATION   OF   SOLDIERS.
WE trust the subject of furnishing fair transportation to soldiers discharged from posts out on the Plains�far distant from the point of enlistment�will receive prompt attention from the proper authorities. Our Fort Boise correspondent lately put this matter in a strong light. Many ot the troops there, who will soon be discharged, were enlisted in New York. They are allowed only 9145 with which to get home, and the cheapest way of getting here costs $360! If they have earned enough out of their pay to supply the extra $?15. this amount is really wrongfully taken from them by the Government. If they haten't saved this amount, they cannot get home at all. They must re-enlist, or settle down on the frontiers, away from kith and kin, and away from the steady life and work which they may desire. It is a monstrous injustice�and yet one unintentional. Commutation of fare is made at a uniform rate per mile by the regulations; but the trouble is that the dangers and difficulties of transportation across the Plains makes the fare two or three times as high as in most civilized regions.
Our correspondent rather underestimated than overestimated the difficulty iu question. Official inquiries at the proper quarters convince us that if an enlisted man is discharged at Fort Boise, Idaho Territory, his entire travelling allowances to New York would be but about $117 50. This might vary somewhat, depending on the price of rations at the post where the man is discharged: and, at some posts on the Pacific, discharged men are allowed travel by the Isthmus of Panama, which would increase the amount. What the practice is in Idaho, in this latter respect, we do not know; but we think the commutation would be about what has just been represented. This estimate is based upon twenty-five cents as the price of a ration; and the distance from Fort Boise to New York by the overiand route is about 3,000 miles.
We trust tlu�v Mi uiatter may receive the prompt attention of Congress, if through that body relief can best be afforded. This object could be accomplished by giving tickets of transportation to discharged soldiers back to their points of enlistment, or to any point short thereof, the Department settling the bargains for those tickets with such lines as they may choose to employ. In the meantime, to meet the single case just spoken of, the soldiers discharged in Idaho might be furnished with travelling pay, commuted on the distance reckoned by the Panama route, which would satisfy them, even if tbey came overland.
There is another subject akin to thist�the uncertainty of pay-day in the Army. This is an ancient evil, and has been at times even a more crying one than now. A soldier, an officer, ought to receive his wages as regularly and promptly as any other salaried man. Bnt he does not. We have known iostanee� of whole regiments, daring too war,
not being paid for ton, twelve, and fourteen months. It was urged that the " exigencies of the service " caused this great evil�and, in fact, these instances did occur during the late war. We never thought the excuse a proper one; but, at all events, it no longer exists.
The first provision in the Bevised Regulations, under the head of Pay Department, is that " the troops will be paid in such manner that the
arrears shall at no til.....xceed two month-. MNJM
the circumstances of tho case ronder it unavoidable." This "unless" happens so often that the exception is in many places more regular than the rule. Some posts beyond the Rocky Mountains only see the paymaster twice a year; and irregularity is hurtful in many ways. In the first place, the soldiers, to raise money in the interim, have to moil-gage their claims and lose iu the way that most other people do who anticipate their dues. Again, to procure necessities and paltry luxuries, they submit, from the consciousness of having no ready money, to enormous impositions, paying enormous prices�as most people do who buy on credit, and who know that the seller is aware that they have not a penny at conimam^. Finally, when the long-ned pa< dm T > ^-V-'!''l'.,;'�s��tity.
that the soldier, long deprived of it, is irresistibly tempted to go to the other cxtrene, and spend it as fast as possible. He throws it away on trifles, and in many cases, if he has leave � absence, gets
Congress can well amend our navigation laws so as to conform to the practice of Great Britain, and allow King Theodore a fair chance on the high
sens.
drunk on it as rapidly and thoroughly as possible. It is not too much to say that a great part of the drunkenness in the Army results from the irregularity in the pay. The long interval from one payday to the next is fruitful in preparing the soldier to indulge himself, anil the large sum he receives furnishes him with the required means.
In Congress, Mr. Washburn, of Indiana, lias already called attention to this subject, and the Committee on Military Affairs is now considering the practicability of paying the Army regularly every week. It is possible that ihis may lie considered as going at once to the other extreme. But this is not so. In no army in Christendom arc so long intervals in pay permitted as in ours. In England, the troops are paid every day; iu France, we believe, every three days; in Prussia certainly every five days; and we are inclined to think there is no country in Europe where soldiers (unless actually on the inarch) are paid less often than once in ten days. But our service allows two months' arrears, and in practice this two may become ten. We must believe, therefore, that to pay the Army every week or every ten days would not be going to the other extreme. It would only be conforming our practice to the well-tested practice of other nations.
Some time since wc took occasion to comment upon the evil effects resulting from the detail of light artillery for duty on the frontier or against the Indians. Since then we have been shown a letter from an officer of one of the light batteries, in which he represents the state of his command as really deplorable. He writes: " The battery is in pretty hard condition at present, as there arc so many recruits, and we have had no opportunity of drilling, etc., since the last of May until a month ago. It has been the only company at the post, escorting people, repairing telegraph line, and keeping it clear for about seventy-five miles, scouting, building quarters, stables, etc." We know not who is responsible for this state of affairs, but it certainly is not for such duty as this that the ten light batteries are maintained by the Government at so great an expense.
The experiment of sending batteries of light artillery on the frontier and on Indian service was tried years ago and found to be a lameutublc failure. The batteries ceased to be buileiics, and in this inefficient and useless condition cost the Government four times as much as they would at a proper and accessible station, where they could be kept efficient and render proper service. This led the author of the tactics for the arm, at the suggestion of one of the ablest generals in the late war, to pronounce Indian or frontier service as '� foreign to the object, and unsuitable to the character of artillery duties.*' Though experience still continues to demonstrate the ill effects to the arm and the service produced by such details, the practice is, nevertheless, persisted in. It is time that a change was effected, and wc know of no better plan than that suggested in a former article�the concentration of several batteries at eligible stations. We urge upon those in authority an early and favorable consideration of tliis question, in order to prevent serious injury to one of the most necessary ond important arms of the service.
We see in the Congressional reports a resolution of Mr. Chandler in the Senab: declaring our neutrality in the war now existing between the governments of Great Britain and Abyssinia.
Some of the learned Senator^ thought these resolutions a joke: but it is by no means certain that Great Britain will think so very long. King Theodore ran furnish quite, as many sailors and officers as did the "Southern Confederacy." and the same use of our |>ort� us was conceded by Great Britain to the " Confedelafrv *' is all that his llajestv ile-in 'lie igentf It hi� Ma'<"�� ty are reticent: hut enou^ii i- knou ii 11;'el the assi that they will not be idle.   In the meantime our
L
Elsewhere we publish in full the report of General Grant. Acting in the double capacity of Secretary of War and General-in-chief, he intends the report to cover both branches of his duties. From time to time we shall take up and disease various points presented in this report, but this week confine ourselves to so much of it as bears on the variety of duties required of the Army� particularly on the' Plains and iu the Districts. Wc need not, of course, add that General Grant's report is fnll of information. To one point we must call attention, promising to discuss it more fully hereafter. General Grant substantially aays that in weapons of all sorts�that great question of the age and of all nations�we stand in a position iin.-urpa~.-ed b> any people in the world. As for our small arms, he declares that " no converted breech-loader In this country or in Europe which is superior to the converted Springfield musket," ami that " none equal to it in serviceable qualities can be produced at less cost." As to heavy ordnance, ho declares " our heavy cast-iron cannon are the cheapest and most effective guns that are j�r.v,,i hj am nation." This i- u* the point, an 1 satisfactory.