as of the articles manufactured therefrom, or purchased ready make, in a compact form and with great precision than is possible in this narrative.

There have been purchased during the fiscal year-

Cloth and other material to the value of...........$21,416,858.84 Clothing............................................70,087,282.20

Equipage............................................13,515,301.09 The expenditure for all objects relating

to clothing and equipage including payment

of rents, compensation to workmen, clerks,

and others, at the principal depots, has been

during the year ending June 30, 1865...............105,019,406.13

Two of the tables herewith give approximately the quantities of material and of ready-made articles of clothing and equipage, which three principal depots have supplied during the war.

At the commencement of the war the department had but one depot for the supply of clothing and equipage, the Schuylkill Arsenal, at Philadelphia. This was organized for the equipment of an army of 13,000 men. The material was purchased by contract form manufactories, and the clothing, shoes, &c., were made up at the arsenal.

The sudden increase of the Army made in necessary to greatly enlarge the operations of this depot and to established new ones, and also to accept the aid of State authorities i providing the clothing of the numerous regiment of volunteers organizing in every district in the country. Eight thousand or 10,000 work- people were employed in Philadelphia in the manufacture of clothing and equipage. The new depots established at New York and Cincinnati went into operation early in 1862, under energetic and able officers. Contracts were made for the supply of clothing ready made. The manufactures of the loyal State were urged to turn their machinery upon army goods. The clothing merchants who before the war supplied the Southern markets made contracts with the department for the supply of army clothing, and in a few months the industry and manufacturing power of the country were turned into the new channel, and the difficulties at first experienced in procuring a sufficient supply for the immense army which sprang into being ceased.

The only domestic branch of manufacture which has not shown capacity to supply the Army is that of blankets. The department has been obliged throughout the war to use a considerable proportion of army blankets of foreign manufacture.

The condition of the property stored at the Schuylkill Arsenal at Philadelphia is a source of apprehension. About $20,000,000 of property are in store, there, and it is recommended that alterations and additions be made in the buildings, or within the walls, to enable the department to remove much valuable property now stored in temporary sheds and exposed to danger from fire into proper fireproof buildings.

The prices of clothing and equipage have constantly advanced during the war. A table of the lowest and highest prices paid accompanies this report. It will be seen that toward the termination of the war the prices of many important articles had more than doubled, of some articles the price has quadrupled.

The Second Division of this office has charge of the provision and distribution of clothing and equipage. it has been under the charge of Colonel A. J. Perry, of the Quartermaster's Department, who has in this office had charge of this branch of its business since the commencement of the war. He is an officer of rare merit, and I have taken