Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/605

 ARMY. 569

present time. The nominal strength of the militia thus organised was 8,245,000 at the last census. In 1796, the regular army consisted of not more than one corps of artillerists and engineers, two companies of light dragoons, and four regiments of infantry of eight companies each. This force was little increased, except during occasional periods, till the outbreak of the civil war.

At the commencement of the year 1861, the United States army consisted of about 14,000 regular troops, garrisoned chiefly in the Southern States. A large number of these joined the cause of the so-called Confederate States, reducing the Federal army to less than 5,000 men. On April 15, 1861, the president called out 75,000 volunteers for three months, to defend the capital, which was threatened ; and on May 3, he called out 42,000 volunteers to serve for three years or the war. On July 22, 1861, Congress passed an act authorising the president to accept the services of 500,000 volunteers for such terms as he might deem necessary, ranging from six months to three years or during the war. On July 25, 1861, the president was again authorised to call out 500,000, making in all 1,000,000 men. The number proving insufficient for the active prosecution of hostilities, and the repair of losses occasioned by the war, a draft was ordered in the summer of 1863, by proclamation of the President of the United States. By a new proclamation of the president, dated October 17, 1863, a levy of 300,000 men was ordered, and another call of 500,000 men was made February 1, 1864. The total number of men called under arms by the Govern- ment of the United States, from 1861 till the end of the civil war, in 1865, amounted to 2,653,062, or nearly one-fourth of the entire male population of the Northern States. The State of New York furnished over one-sixth of the whole number, Pennsyl- vania one-eighth, Ohio one-ninth,and Massachusetts one-fifteenth : these four States gave to the army one-fifth of their entire male population. New Hampshire and Vermont sent one-fourth of their male citizens, and Indiana and Illinois over one-fourth. Kansas showed the highest proportion, having sent 36 per cent. of her men, while Iowa sent 30 per cent. The Southern or Confederate States had in the field, during the greater part of the war, an army of 400,000 men, of which, it is estimated, they lost 300,000 from wounds and disease. The Southern army was entirely disbanded in April 1865 ; but of the Federal army there remained 210,000 on the pay rolls on July 31, 1865, after which date there commenced a slow process of disbandment.

The following table gives, after the official return of the Secretary of the Treasury, the total military expenditure of the United States in each of the ten fiscal years from 1860 to 1869: —