TRANSPORTATION.

The movement during the year was of 46,658 persons, 10,355 beasts, and 136,632 tons of material, costing $1,802,931.37, of which $393,156,27 was paid for transportation of persons and $1,409,775.10 for freight.

The larger movements of troops were:

Third Cavalry, Companies C, G, and L, from Department of the Platte to Department of the Missouri, 291 miles.

Second Artillery, Companies E, G, and L, from Department of Texas to Department of the South, 1,080 miles.

Sixteenth Infantry, headquarters and ten companies, from Department of the Missouri to Department of Texas, 705 miles.

Twenty-fourth Infantry, headquarters and ten companies, from Department of Texas to Department of the Missouri, 608 miles.

RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION.

There were moved by rail 32,820 persons, 8,782 beasts, and 83,510 tons of material and supplies.

The cost to the appropriation for transportation of the Army has been $212,729.90 for passengers and $307,912.66 for stock and freight.

The bonded Pacific railroads have earned $836,638.05 for military transportation, which sum is withheld by the Secretary of the Treasury to be applied, under the law of 7th May, 1878, to the liquidation of their indebtedness to the United States.

The value at full tariff rates of transportation over the land-grant railroads during the year is estimated at $250,000.

There is no appropriation available for the payment of military transportation over land-grant railroads during the fiscal year.

Under the existing laws, as interpreted by the courts, the land-grant railroad companies are entitled to compensation for all military transportation service performed by them, respectively, subject to a fair deduction for the use of their respective railroads. Assuming this deduction to be 50 per centum of the ordinary rates in accordance with the acts of 24th February and of 3d March, 1881, the estimated amount due these railroads for service during the year is $125,000.

Unsettled railroad accounts, aggregating $200,000, are outstanding and cannot be paid until means are provided by Congress.

The total value at tariff rates of service rendered to the War Department by railroads during the year is $1,807,280.61.

BONDED PACIFIC RAILROADS.

The following tables state the military transportation during the fisca year on the several Pacific railroads named:

*

Merged into Union Pacific Railway Company, and now styled "Union Pacific Railway Company, Kansas Division."

Freight transported.

The following is a statement of unsettled accounts with these railroads on 30th June, 1881, either in this office or in the Treasury Department, under adjustment:

The total earnings of these railroads on account of military transportation, from their first opening to 30th June, 1881, is stated as follows:

The acts approved March 3, 1873 (section 5260, Revised Statutes), May 7, 1878 (section 2, 20 Statutes, page 58), and March 3, 1879 (20) Statutes, page 420), are the laws which govern the adjustment of bonded Pacific railroad accounts for military transportation.

These laws are quoted in the report of Leiut. Col. J. G. Chandler, in charge of the transportation branch of this office, which accompanies this report.

LAND-GRANT RAILROADS.

In the act making appropriations for support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1882, approved February 24, 1881, an appropriation was made in the following terms:

For the payment for Army transportation lawfully due such land-grant railroads as have not received aid in government bonds, to be adjusted by the proper accounting

officers in accordance with the decisions of the Supreme Court in cases decided under such land-grant acts, but in no case shall more than fifty per cent. of the full amount of the service be paid until a final decision shall be had in respect of each case in dispute, one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars: Provided, That such payment shall be accepted as in full of all demands for said services.

In the act approved March 3, 1881, making appropriations to supply deficiencies, &c., an appropriation was made in the following terms:

To pay land-grant railroads fifty per centum of what the Quartermaster's Department finds justly due them for transportation during the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty, and prior years, to be accepted in full of all demands for said services, two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars.

Thus the law of February 24, 1881, provides for settlement for serv ices rendered during the year ending June 30, 1882, and the law of March 3, 1881, provides for settlement of accounts for services rendered during the year ending June 30, 1880, and prior years, but no provision has been made for payment for services rendered by the land-grant railroads during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881, an estimate for which has been submitted to Congress (see House Ex. Doc. No. 44, Forty-sixth Congress, third session, page 15).

Up to the 30th June, 1881, 230 accounts in favor of land-grant railroads had been presented to this office, amounting as rendered, at full tariff rates, to $484,991.85; 213 accounts had been examined, adjusted, and referred to the Treasury for settlement, amounting to $443,688.37; 17 accounts remain in this office, awaiting examination, amounting to $41,303.48; 113 accounts have been settled by the accounting officers of the Treasury at 50 per centum of rates fixed by this office, amounting to $124,007.11; and 100 accounts are awaiting settlement in the Treasury, amounting at full rates to $181,321.63.

The following-named land-grant railroad companies have filed acceptances of the provisions and restrictions of the law of March 3, 1881, in settlement of accounts for services rendered the War Department: Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé.

Atlantic, Gulf and West India Transit Company.

Chicago and Northwestern.

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific.

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy.

Illinois Central.

Northern Pacific.

Louisville and Nashville, for the Pensacola Railroad Company.

Louisville and Nashville, for the South and North Alabama Railroad Company.

Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Line, for the Saint Paul and Sioux City Railroad Company.

Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba.

Saint Louis and San Francisco.

Northern Pacific, for the Western Railroad of Minnesota.

General Orders No. 69, September 30, 1880, and No. 57, June 22, 1881, prepared in this office and issued by the War Department, gives the names and classes of the several land-grant railroads, the termini of the land-grant and bonded portions of each road, and publishes extracts from the laws showing conditions of grant to each so far as relates to use of the road by the United States, together with instructions regulating settlements for military transportation over such roads as authorized and provided by existing laws. Copies of these General Orders accompany this report.

WAGON AND STAGE TRANSPORTATION.

On wagon-wheels the department moved by contract or hire and by Army teams 34,428 tons of military supplies, at a cost, as reported, of $853,007.45.

Sixty-two contracts for wagon transportation have been made and received at this office during the fiscal year.

Five thousand and forty-seven passengers and 24,744 pounds of stores have been transported by stage, costing $91,872.44.

WATER TRANSPORTATION.

There have been moved by water during the year 8,642 persons, 1,573 beasts, and 18,681 tons of materials and supplies, at a cost of $453,743.72. The work was done by vessels belonging to established commercial lines of water transportation, by contract, and by vessels owned and chartered by the United States.

The following-named vessels are in service of the department: Sidewheel steamer Henry Smith, in New York Harbor; propeller Ordnance, in employ of Ordnance Department, in New York Harbor; steam-tug Atlantic, in New York Harbor; steam-tug Resolute, in Boston Harbor; propeller General McPherson, in San Francisco Harbor; steam launch Thayer, at Fort Adams, R. I.; steam launch Monroe, at Fort Monroe, Va.; steam launch General Greene, at Fort McHenry, Md.; steam launch Hamilton, at David's Island, New York Harbor; steam launch General Jesup, at Governor's Island and David's Island, New York Harbor; steam launch Barrancas, at Fort Barrancas, Fla.; steamboat General Sherman, employed on the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers; schooner Matchless, at Key West, Fla.; steam launch Chelan, employed on Lake Chelan, Washington Territory; steam launch Amelia Wheaton, on Lake Cœur d'Alene, Indian Territory; and steam launch Lillie Lee, at Fort Totten, Devil's Lake, Dakota Territory. The cost of maintenance and of running these vessels during the year has been $94,600.16. The steam launch Lillie Lee was completed in July, 1879, and put into service on Devil's Lake, Dakota Territory. She is 43 feet in length over all, 10 feet 4 inches beam, and 5 feet hold, and about 40 tons burden. Reported cost, $2,500,

The lumber for her construction was cut in the vicinity of Fort Totten, and all the labor in connection with the construction of her hull was performed by enlisted men.

The machinery first placed in her proved on trial to be of insufficient power, and in January last a set of machinery, in store at the Philadelphia depot of the Quartermaster's Department, was ordered to Fort Totten to be placed in the launch.

In August, 1879, authority was granted for supply of a steam launch at Fort Cœur d'Alene, Idaho, and of one at Camp Chelan, Wash.

The steam launch for Fort Coœur d'Alene was completed in August, 1880. Her hull was built at the post, mostly by labor of the troops. Her machinery is reported to have cost $2,750. She is 40 tons burden, and named the Amelia Wheaton.

Her re

The steam launch Chelan was purchased at Portland, Oreg. ported cost is $3,510. She was transported by rail over the portages at the Cascades and the Dalles, and proceeded up the Columbia River to Priest's Rapids, at which point she struck on the rocks, was capsized and swamped. She was subsequently raised and transported by wagons to a point on the river opposite Camp Chelan. Her tonnage is 15 tons.

The total expenditure for water transportation during the year is reported at $453,743.72.

TRANSPORTATION ACCOUNTS AND CLAIMS.

One thousand four hundred and forty accounts and claims for transportation have been adjusted in this office during the year, amounting to $1,399,645.20; 1,307, amounting to $1,257,497.61, were reported favorably for settlement; 84, amounting to $77,668.22, were unfavorably reported and rejection recommended, and 49, amounting to $64,479.37, were suspended for additional evidence; 488, amounting to $1,269,207.63, were in the office unsettled at the close of the fiscal year.

INDEBTED RAILROADS.

At the beginning of the fiscal year the debts of the railroad companies for railway material, purchased by them from the United States at the close of the war, under Executive orders, and not compromised or settled under special laws of Congress, and excluding two railroads declared insolvent, amounted to $1,068,911.72. During the year interest and charges against these railroads amounted to $42,611.49. Payments by military transportation and postal service were credited to them, amounting to $5,088.66. Their debts on June 30, 1881, amounted to $1,106,434.55.

In addition to the payments by transportation service, there was received on account of the indebtedness of the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad Company the sum of $2,475.83, being the balance due the Quartermaster's Department from the postal earnings of that road.

The amount due the Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company, being 50 per cent. of its earnings as a land-grant railroad, is still withheld by the accounting officers of the Treasury, pending settlement of the account of that company for material purchased.

A communication has been sent to the governor of Tennessee in relation to the indebtedness of that State for property purchased for the Edgefield and Kentucky and the Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville Railroads, for which the United States holds the bonds of the State in double the value of the property purchased, requesting that if arrangements cannot be made at an early day to pay these debts, that the matter be submitted to the legislature of the State. No reply has been received, and the debts are still unpaid.

REGULAR AND MISCELLANEOUS SUPPLIES.

Animals.-One thousand four hundred and thirty-eight cavalry and artillery horses were purchased during the year, costing $179,926.71, averaging per head $125.12. Of these there were received in Department of Dakota, 277; Department of the Missouri, 494; Department of the Platte, 100; Department of Texas, 192; Department of California, 33; Department of the Columbia, 61; Department of Arizona, 221; Department of West Point, 31; at New York depot, 25; at Saint Louis depot, 4.

For the Army trains 1,006 mules and 29 draught horses were purchased; the mules costing $111,744.80, an average of $111.07 per head, and the horses $5,330, an average of $183.79 per head.

One thousand four hundred and eighty-seven horses and 594 mules were sold during the year. The horses brought $56,677.37 and the