August the army consisted of 56,365 officers and men, the number
of officers being but slightly increased. It was decided not to
use the militia as it was then organized, but to rely for numbers
as usual chiefly upon a volunteer army, authorized by the Act of
the 22d of April, and by subsequent acts raised to a total of
200,000, with an additional 3000 cavalry, 3500 engineers, and
10,000 "immunes," or men supposed not to be liable to tropical
diseases. The war seemed equally popular all over the country,
and the million who offered themselves for service were
sufficient to allow due consideration for equitable state quotas
and for physical fitness. There were also sufficient
Krag-Jorgensen rifles to arm the increased regular army and
Springfields for the volunteers.

To provide an adequate number of officers for the volunteer army
was more difficult. Even though a considerable number were
transferred from the regular to the volunteer army, they
constituted only a small proportion of the whole number
necessary. Some few of those appointed were graduates of West
Point, and more had been in the militia. The great majority,
however, had purely amateur experience, and many not even so
much. Those who did know something, moreover, did not have the
same knowledge or experience. This raw material was given no
officer training whatsoever but was turned directly to the task
of training the rank and file. Nor were the appointments of new
officers confined to the lower ranks. The country, still mindful
of its earlier wars, was charmed with the sentimental elevation
of confederate generals to the rank of major general in the new
army, though a public better informed would hardly have welcomed
for service in the tropics the selection of men old enough to be