|
1845 SECRETARY OF WAR REPORT ON MILITARY SPENDING
– SCARCE EARLY PRINTING – VERY INTERESTING, UNUSUAL
HISTORICAL MATERIAL: An early Secretary of War
Report specifically addressing the amounts and kind of
expenses paid on a contingency basis during the course
of the year to support the early army. Now before you
dismiss this document, please read on – even if you
decide this isn’t your type of collectable, I guarantee
that if you enjoy history in its raw form, you’ll enjoy
browsing this description. As with any well oiled
corporate machine, things come up that you never in your
wildest imagination budgeted for, yet still have to be
accounted for – and so you have a contingency fund, and
so did the army even in 1845. This is the annual
accounting for these unplanned or non-budgeted items for
which the army had to expend money. For example:
* a map of the Santa Fe trade drawn by Capt. Cooke,
Dragoons
* target material at Ft. Macon
* the services of the riding master at West Point
* property taxes paid on United States Property [Ft.
Mifflin] (tax paid on a fort?)
* services of a ship to recover target on a lake after
its moorings were cut by cannon fire
* binding for 1498 volumes of Army Regulations, 1841 (see
related listing)
* investigation into citizens encouraging soldiers to
desert and sell their clothes
* freight for a copper boulder (?)
* more floating target recoveries – (apparently this
was an ongoing problem)
* purchase of shaving brush, soap and razor for
executing courts martial sentences
This seven page original printing of the 1845 dated
report to the 28th Congress was apparently
part of a larger bound volume, and while it lacks any
hard covers, the pages are bound together and the
document is intact.
In remarkably very good condition, the pages are all
present with little if any sign of wear and no damage
and all of the printing is legible. If your interests
focus on the pre-Civil War army, at the very least I
believe you will find this edition interesting and it
isn’t often you are able to obtain this type of view of
the early army and its financial dealings with
Congress. In some cases, there is enough information to
launch some interesting research projects into what acts
predicated the expenditures. (C-129) $30
|
