I Have Found It
Impossible To Ascertain What Has Hitherto Been Expended On The Army.
I Much Doubt Whether Even Mr. Chase, The Secretary Of The Treasury,
Or Mr. Stanton, The Secretary Of War, Know Themselves, And I Do Not
Suppose That Mr. Stanton's Predecessor Much Cared.
Some approach,
however, may be reached to the amount actually paid in wages and for
clothes and diet; and I give below a statement which I have seen of
the actual annual sum proposed to be expended on these heads,
presuming the army to consist of 500,000 men.
The army is stated to
contain 660,000 men, but the former numbers given would probably be
found to be nearer the mark: -
Wages of privates, including sergeants and
corporals $86,640,000
Salaries of regimental officers 23,784,000
Extra wages of privates; extra pay to
mounted officers, and salary to
officers above the rank of colonel l7,000,000
- - - - - -
$127,424,000
or
25,484,000 pounds sterling.
To this must be added the cost of diet and clothing. The food of
the men, I was informed, was supplied at an average cost of l7 cents
a day, which, for an army of 500,000 men, would amount to 6,200,000
pounds per annum. The clothing of the men is shown by the printed
statement of their War Department to amount to $3.00 a month for a
period of five years. That, at least, is the amount allowed to a
private of infantry or artillery.
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