have been allowed for the outfit of expeditions which other nations would spend months in preparing. Time has not been allowed for public competition, and indeed the Government has employed nearly all the available vessels, so that, taking all, there could be no competition.

Under these circumstances, and with officers, however honest, with but little experience in business of such magnitude, it is not surprising that the Government has been compelled to pay largely. These steamers have in some cases been taken from profitable lines almost by military compulsion. The demands of the Government have in some cases absorbed nearly all the ocean steamers of the country, and have seriously encroached upos of our great cities.

In the West the closing of the Mississippi threw a large fleet of steamers out of employment, and, under the excellent system pursued by the officers of the department at Saint Louis, the transportation of troops in the movements upon the Tennessee and Cumberland, resulting in the opening of these rivers and in the dispersion of the rebel force at Corinth, and in the movements down the Mississippi to Memphis and Helena, and upon the Missouri River, has been obtained at rates probably below those of any similar movement ever made.

The abundance of steam-boats upon the Western waters and their peculiar construction afford great facilities for the movement of troops. The boats approach the beach and land the troops, horses, artillery, wagons, and stores at almost any desired point without difficulty, while on the Eastern waters the vessels are generally of such draft as compels them to make use of wharves or to remain at a distance from the beach and land by means of lighters and boats.

LAND TRANSPORT.

The land transport in the extensive marches of the Army has also been a source of vast expenditure, but the supplies have been abundant. In the earlier marches the size of the trains was beyond all precedent. Regiments marched with complete equipments of heavy winter tents; officers indulged in a luxury of baggage, and camp followers encumbered the trains with their useless luggage. General Orders, No. 160, issued by the General-in-Chief, enforces a salutary reform.* It reduces the allowance of wagons to a regimental train within reasonable limits; prescribes the allowance of tents and of baggage to officers and men, and assigns to certain portions of the train the duty of transporting the hospital stores, forage for the animals, and other absolute necessaries of troops in the field.

The introduction of the shelter tent for all troops in campaign, the disuse of the Sibley tent and the wedge tent, and the reduction of the allowance of tents to headquarters and for officers will greatly reduce the expense and increase the efficiency and mobility of our armies.

Napoleon asserts, and there is no higher authority, that an army of 40,000 men with a train of 480 wagons can carry with it a month's provisions. He considers that the men and the extra or led horses can carry ten days", and the 480 wagons twenty days", rations. This is at the rate of twelve wagons to 1,000 men.

This applies only to an army in motion. When the army remains in one place for a length of time it consumes the forage of the vicinity,

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*See October 18, p.671.

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