The report of the Secretary of War shows that the Army has been actively
employed during the year in subduing, at the request of the Indian
Bureau, certain wild bands of the Sioux Indian Nation and in preserving
the peace at the South during the election. The commission constituted
under the act of July 24, 1876, to consider and report on the "whole
subject of the reform and reorganization of the Army" met in August
last, and has collected a large mass of statistics and opinions bearing
on the subject before it. These are now under consideration, and their
report is progressing. I am advised, though, by the president of the
commission that it will be impracticable to comply with the clause of
the act requiring the report to be presented, through me, to Congress
on the first day of this session, as there has not yet been time for
that mature deliberation which the importance of the subject demands.
Therefore I ask that the time of making the report be extended to the
29th day of January, 1877.
In accordance with the resolution of August 15, 1876, the Army
regulations prepared under the act of March 1, 1875, have not been
promulgated, but are held until after the report of the above-mentioned
commission shall have been received and acted on.
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