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MISCELLANEOUS CLAIMS.

Other claims of a miscellaneous character, based on certified vouchers, &c., to the number of 47, amounting to $9,196.57, were received during the fiscal year and 155 claims of the same class, amounting to $25,087.72, were reported to the Treasury for the action of the accounting officers. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

The QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL, U. S. A.

JAS. M. MOORE. Quartermaster, U. S. A.

No. 7.-Report of Maj. B. C. Card, quartermaster, United States Army, of the affairs relating to the care and maintenance of national military cemeteries, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881.

OFFICE OF NATIONAL CEMETERIES,
Washington, D. C., August 17, 1881.

To the QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL:

GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the usual annual report concerning the national military cemeteries for the fiscal year ending on the 30th day of June, 1881.

The appropriation granted for their care and maintenance during the year was $100,000, and the expenditures amounted to $96,439.36, as follows:

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A detailed statement of these expenditures will be found in the appendix to this report. With these means the cemeteries have been kept in excellent order.

New lodges have been built at the Mobile, Chalmette, and Beaufort national cemeteries. The Chalmette lodge was constructed after design prepared especially for that cemetery, and is well suited to that climate. Substantial out-buildings, of brick or stone, have been erected at the Chalmette, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Mobile, New Albany, and New Berne national cemeteries. As the old out-houses at the various cemeteries become dilapidated and unfit for further repairs, it is the intention to replace them with brick or stone structures.

A rostrum has been built at the national cemetery at New Albany, Ind., for Decoration Day services.

The grounds at the larger cemeteries have been extensively improved by grading, top-dressing, &c., and the result is very gratifying. The Chattanooga and Nashville cemeteries may be specially mentioned in this connection; both now present a very beautiful appearance. There is

yet, of course, at all these places, room for still further improvement, and the work will be steadily prosecuted as the means will allow. A liberal supply of good fertilizers will be distributed in the fall to many of the cemeteries, to improve the sod, on which the good appearance of the cemeteries so largely depends.

Provision has also been made for an additional supply of trees and plants for such cemeteries as are not sufficiently provided with them. They will be carefully selected at good nurseries, and every effort made to plant them successfully.

The Marietta cemetery contains about 24 acres and is much visited. It is proposed to construct there at an early day a handsome archway and a rostrum or speaker's stand.

The road to the Vicksburg national cemetery was completed during the year, so far as the means permitted, and opened to travel in the spring. An additional appropriation has been granted, with which the road will be graveled in the fall.

The road to the Fort Scott, Kansas, national eemetery is now being built. The grading is nearly completed, and a contract has been let on favorable terms for macadamizing it. The appropriation, it is feared, however, will not suffice for completing the work, and an additional sum of $7,000 has been asked for.

Congress at its last session appropriated $5,000 for constructing a road from the city of Chattanooga to the national cemetery near that place, and measures have been taken to secure the necessary right of way. The estimate of the engineer for this work was $15,000, for a macadamized road, and it is hoped that a sufficient additional appropri ation may be granted to build such a road.

The roads at these places, namely, Vicksburg, Fort Scott, and Chattanooga, when completed, will afford easy access to the cemeteries, which are much visited. The number of visitors, however, is much less than at the national cemetery at Arlington, near this city, which can be reached only by a very bad, and, in winter, a dangerous road. Light vehicles have not infrequently been mired immediately in front of the cemetery, and, altogether, this journey to a place that cannot fail to be of so much interest to the visitors to the National Capital is made only under serious discomfort. In view of the fact that Congress has granted the means to make decent approaches to other national cemeteries of less prominence, I beg to renew the recommendation so often made by my predecessor, Colonel Rockwell, that the same aid be given towards constructing a passable road to the Arlington cemetery.

The national cemeteries near the cities of Brooklyn and Baltimore— Cypress Hills and Loudon Park-are nearly filled with graves, and in Philadelphia streets are likely to be opened through some of the incorporated cemeteries in which there are soldiers' lots owned and maintained by the United States, which will necessitate the removal of the remains.

With regard to Cypress Hills, there is yet room for about 400 bodies, and at the rate of burials during the past few years, this space may suffice for the next twenty years. But this is simply conjecture. The number of interments may increase, and, in any event, the fact that the Cypress Hills national cemetery is the only national cemetery near the large cities of New York and Brooklyn, and that the government lot is nearly full, renders it advisable to secure more ground in that vicinity at a not distant day. Additional lots adjoining the present national cemetery can be purchased for about $22,000. This is a large sum, but when the land is once paid for and improved, the cost of maintenance

would be only a trifle more than for the present cemetery. Instructions have, however, been given to ascertain whether a few acres of rural land, within easy distance of New York, can be purchased for a reasonable sum, for a new cemetery.

In the Loudon Park cemetery, near Baltimore, the government lot contains only a little over an acre, and affords no room for the large number of visitors on Decoration Day, estimated this year at 10.000. Steps have therefore been taken to enlarge the cemetery by the purchase of an additional piece of ground, immediately adjoining the land now owned by the United States.

In Philadelphia the United States owns lots in seven cemeteries. The city, it is understood, intends to open up streets through some of these cemeteries, and, in that case, the government will be compelled to provide other ground for the reinterment of the soldiers' remains. After a careful consideration of the case, it appears to be best to purchase a few acres of land in the immediate vicinity of Philadelphia, and there establish a national cemetery, to which can be removed all the bodies from the government lots now scattered through the city. The quartermaster at Philadelphia has been instructed to look into the matter and ascertain whether a suitable piece of land can be purchased, and for what sum. As soon as his reply is received, a special report will he made on the subject for transmission to Congress, as it is probable that a special appropriation will be necessary to carry out the action proposed.

The number of interments in the national cemeteries on the 30th of June last was 318,859; of these, 219 were made during the fiscal year. In nearly all of the national cemeteries are interred civilians, prisoners of war, freedmen, and women and children, buried during or immediately after the war, whose graves are still marked with the old headboards, which are rapidly decaying, and are therefore very unsightly. These boards will, from time to time, as means will allow, be replaced by white marble slabs, 2 inches thick, which we are now able to procure at very reasonable rates-$1.50 each-during the progress of the other headstone work.

The work of erecting the headstones at soldiers' graves in private and village cemeteries has not progressed satisfactorily, and it seems probable that one of the contractors will fail to carry out his agreement, in which event the sureties on his bond, who own the quarries from which the marble is procured, will, it is understood, undertake to complete the work. Headstones have been shipped to the New England States, New York, Delaware, and the District of Columbia, but many have yet to be delivered at the cemeteries and properly erected.

There were seventy-one superintendents in service July 1, 1880. During the fiscal year six were appointed, two died, two resigned, one was discharged, and two were dismissed, leaving seventy in service June 30, 1881.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJAMIN C. CARD,

Quartermaster, U. S. A., in charge of National Cemeteries.

A.-Statement of disbursements of appropriations for national cemeteries during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881.

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Name of cemetery.

Repair,

Gates.

Construction.

A.--Statement of disbursements of appropriations for national cemeteries during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881-Continued.

Walls.

Lodges.

(sheds,

Repair.

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Rent of quarters.

stables, &c.).

Outhouses

Greenhouses.

Trees, plants, &c.

Employés.

Drainage.

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