STATE OF MICHIGAN. ADJUTANT AND QUARTER MASTER GENERAL'S OFFICE, To His Excellency EPAPHRODITUS RANSOM, Governor and Com mander-in-Chief. SIR,-I have the honor to communicate to you herewith my Annual Report from this Department, for the year 1849, and to remain, With sentiments of highest respect, No. 7. LEGISLATURE, 1850. Annual Report of the Adjutant and Quarter Master General. ADJUTANT AND QUARTER MASTER GENERAL'S OFFICE, To His Excellency, EPAPHRODITUS RANSOM, Governor and Commander-in-Chief: SIR-This being the day as fixed by law, on which the annual report of the condition and administration of this department during the year is to be laid before you, I have the honor herewith to transmit the several abstracts of the active or volunteer militia, as well as of the inactive or enrolled "militia" as made by the Assessors of the several cities and towns, and tabular statements of the amount of ordnance and ordnance stores, military equipments, &c., the property of the State issued or stored in the U. S. Arsenal at Dearborn and in the State Arsenal in this city, under' my care as Quarter Master General. And I respectfully solicit from your Excellency and the Honorable the Legislature, "that the suggestions herewith respectfully submitted, not only as regards the militia service itself, but also that the recommendations for the preservation of the large and accumulating amount of State property in arms and accoutrements, may receive that consideration which the subjects severally deserve." The aggregate military force of the State for the year 1849, by the returns obtained, with those liable to do military duty not yet returned, including the active or volunteer "militia," appears to be 60,018 men, as per abstract A., and abstract B. in Appendix, exhibits the arms, accoutrements and ammunition. Before entering upon the more important portion of my Report, I propose to speak somewhat at large of the inactive or enrolled militia. The annexed table marked C., in Appendix, gives the numbers of the enrolled militia for the years 1848 and 1849, with the increase and decrease of the several counties, by Divisions, since the former year. Since the passage of the existing militia law, approved May, 1846, I was compelled to complain of the imperfect manner in which the civil authorities, viz: the Assessors, Supervisors, Township and County Clerks, made returns to this office, as provided by law, of the numerical strength of the inactive or enrolled militia-indeed, in many instances, of their total neglect of this dutyand considering that the aggregate of the whole militia force of the State is to be transmitted as required by law to the General Government, and the importance of the fact that upon the number returned, depends the quantity of military supplies to which the State is annually entitled under the act of Congress of April 23d, 1808, and in the hope of securing greater attention to accuracy in the returns, I addressed from time to time these functionaries by circular, or called their attention to the duties assigned by law, in newspaper notices; yet I regret to say, that instead of this remisness being corrected, it appears rather more aggravated, and the exhibit of our numerical strength will shortly appear on a decrease instead of increase-which, in a State like this, in which a steady tide of emigration flows, should prove the contrary. I appealed last year to the wisdom of the Legislature, to correct this evil, either by some more stringent compulsory law, or by allowing the Assessor a small stipend for the extra duty of registering names of the individuals liable to do military duty at the time of taking the annual assessment for taxes; and although Michigan is entitled to the credit of being amongst the first of the States which abolished the so called militia trainings, and established the enroll, |