NATIONAL MILITARY PARK COMMISSION. MAY 25, 1906.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. PARKER, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 7046.]. The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 7046) to provide for a National Military Park Commission, report the same back to the House with the recommendation that it do pass with amendments as follows: In section 1, lines 3 and 4, page 1, strike out the words "first day of July nineteen hundred and six" and insert "days hereinafter mentioned." In lines 6 and 7 strike out "said commissions being the same existing under the following acts; that is to say" and insert the words "that is to say the commissions existing under." In line 12 insert after "ninety-four" the word “and.” In line 14 strike out "and" and insert "shall end on the first day of July nineteen hundred and seven; and the commission existing under." In page 2, after line 2, insert "shall end on the first day of July, nineteen hundred and nine." This bill is founded on H. R. 14351, Fifty-seventh Congress, and H. R. 14748, Fifty-eighth Congress. It was never intended that four separate and expensive park commissions should be maintained permanently for Gettysburg, Shiloh, Chickamauga, and Vicksburg. This is a bill to vest their powers in one national military park commission, which shall take their place, saving a large annual expense to the Government, and taking charge not only of these four great parks but of any historic ground acquired by the United States, or any fort, battlefield, or burial place of any of its wars-colonial, Revolutionary, civil, or otherwise. The first section abolishes the present park commissions of Chickamauga, Shiloh, and Gettysburg on July 1, 1907, and that of Vicksburg on July 1, 1909, or earlier if the work is done and the commission surrenders its functions. The second section confides the general work above stated and those functions (subject to the powers remaining till the above dates in the existing commissions) to a national military park commission, subject to the supervision of the Secretary of War. The commission shall consist of five commissioners and for the next ten years shall be veterans of civil war. It shall have an office in Washington, and the first members shall include one of each of the existing commissions and an officer of the Army, active or retired. All will get their expenses, but no double pay. By section 3 the commission has the power to go immediately upon the work of marking our battlefields and buying separate points of interest, such as defensive works and points of view. No one purchase is to cost more than $1,000, and no moneys will be spent unless appropriation has been made for the purpose of the commission. This commission will thus be able to engage in the duties so long neglected of preserving the key points of the various battlefields and of marking the lines. Expenditures are to be made under the supervision of the Secretary of War, and no purchase is to be made except where the price seems reasonable. By section 4 State and military monuments may be erected, subject to the approval of the commission and Secretary. Section 5 provides the usual penalties for the injury of any monument or relic. Section 6 allows the leasing of lands acquired on condition that they be maintained without expense to the Government. Section 7 provides for report to Congress as to suitable purchases exceeding the limit, and no such purchases are to be made without special authority from Congress; and section 8 appropriates $25,000 for the purposes of the commission. Thus this is a bill to establish a single national military park commission, in which the present commission shall be merged. We have already four military park commissions-for Chattanooga, Shiloh, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg. Each of them was appointed to prepare the park and turn it over to the Secretary of War. With that view the commissioners were each given $3,000 a year salary, making in all $36,000. To this sum is to be added office expenses and the pay of secretaries and clerks. Separate commissions were necessary to prepare these great parks. The system is too cumbrous to be continued beyond the time necessary therefor, nor was it intended by the statutes which established these parks in 1890, 1894, 1897, and 1899. The battlefield of Antietam-not a park-has been marked under the charge of the Secretary of War at small expense every year. Many other parks are now urged upon Congress, each by a bill creating a new commission. A list of those of the Fifty-eighth Congress is contained in an appendix. The number of these bills proves the impossibility of properly dealing with the question by establishing a park at each battlefield. The present four parks had cost over $2,000,000 in 1992, and will cost much more. It is not possible nor necessary to have a new park at each battlefield. But it seems of the first importance that markings should be made to show the crucial points of these battles, and that this should be done before death has overtaken the last survivor. According to the testimony taken these markings may take the form of plain cannonball monuments. At the more important points narrow roadways may be laid out along the principal lines of battle, but in such manner as not to change the face of the country, and to leave it as it was when the battle was fought. All this will be comparatively inexpensive. Our duty to the dead and the living demands that this work of love should be done and done now. The conflict was the greatest the world has known. The four great battles about Fredericksburg, the many about Atlanta, Stone River, the fields of Murfreesboro, Franklin, Corinth, Nashville, Wilsons Creek, and a host of others should be marked, and the memories of the great events that took place there should be preserved. Such points as the "Bloody Angle," near Fredericksburg, and the house in which the surrender at Appomattox was made mark eras in American history. A field in the Maumee Valley is sacred as the burying place of hundreds, if not thousands, of American soldiers. Valley Forge preserves to this day the intrenchments of Washington. Even close to the Capitol are the remains of part of Fort Stevens, and the very spot is pointed out where Lincoln stood upon the breastworks and watched the advance of Early's troops. Patriotism demands the preservation of these spots. But is is plain that they will not be preserved if a salaried commission has to be created for every spot and the surrounding country bought in and changed into a park for the benefit of some neighboring town or for the glorification of its creators. The work ought to be done as it was done at Antietam, by acquiring narrow roadways, maintaining the general condition of the country, setting up proper monuments and marks, and thus enabling the student and patriot to see how the battle was fought. This could probably be done (as at Antietam) by the placing of a sum at the disposal of the War Department for that purpose. A commission, however, has some advantages. A single commission for the whole nation is not too much of an expense. It is therefore proposed by the bill to establish a central commission, which shall shortly take the place of the present four battlefield park commissions. The saving in salaries alone will give a large fund for the purpose desired. The bill, as above stated, provides that the present commissions shall come to an end in a fixed time, or earlier if their work be done, and that one member from each of the present commissions and an officer of the Army, either active or retired, shall constitute a national park commission, whose duty it shall be, out of any appropriations made for the national park commission, to mark the battlefields, buying such part of them as may seem necessary for the preservation of important points, laying out sufficient roads on each field to enable the lines to be easily traced, and generally to do this work while there are veterans living who can fix the location. Those commissioners who have done the best work on the old commissions would be selected for the new. Any question as to a new park or of any purchase at an expense above $1,000 would be reserved for Congress, on report of the commission. One great good result which is expected to be attained is in the HR-59-1-Vol 3- -5 price to be paid on the purchase of land. The moment that a statute orders such purchase at any particular spot values go up many fold. The new commission, on the other hand, will have only a certain sum to expend, and will select from the various points of interest that are offered those which can be acquired most reasonably. It was suggested in the testimony of Gen. George B. Davis, who has had much experience in this matter, that the national commission should come to an end in ten years. We have not felt willing to advise this course; but when their work is done, the further care of the spots marked can be left to the War Department. The bill contains the ordinary powers for leasing the land to occupants on condition that they preserve the landmarks, and for fines for injuring monuments and relics. Finally, there is an appropriation of $25,000 for the purposes of the commission. This amount will be clear for the purposes of the act. The salaries of the commissioners are already paid so far as they are selected from commissions already existing, and any army officer attached to the commission receives his own salary. The amount to be appropriated has been given much consideration. There is none of the parks proposed that has not asked more than this for immediate expenditures. On the other hand, if new parks are not to be created, and the only thing necessary is to mark and preserve points of interest on the various fields, the sum appropriated should be sufficient. A fair discretion ought to be given in this matter to the commissioners, under the advice of the Secretary of War, and the sum appropriated may be large enough to enable them to take advantage of advantageous offers and to proceed with their work while the veterans still survive, and with all speed possible. The provisions of this bill will finally mark the key points of the battlefields of the Union. It is not desirable that all those battlefields should be turned into great military parks, adorned with monuments, and so changed as to be utterly unlike the country at the time of the battle. It is rather desired that they should be preserved as they were when the battle was fought. The farm land, the woods and the pastures, and the buildings should be left as they were and are. Purchases would only be necessary in order to preserve the points of greatest interest. We append a statement of park bills pending in the last Congress. and also reprint a letter of the Secretary of War giving certain facts as to the present system of parks, their area and cost as well as the statement made before the subcommittee in 1902 by Gen. George B. Davis especially calling attention to the first seven and the last pages of his luminous statement. Total appropriations for one year to begin work on new parks.. 1,632, 000.00 Besides Gettysburg addition (H. R. 10015). 180,000.00 500.00 APPENDIX B. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, March 3, 1902. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th ultimo, requesting, on behalf of the Committee on Military Affairs, House of Representatives, a statement containing First. The number of military parks that have been installed by act of Congress and the date of each act. Second. The area and original cost of each. Third. The approximate amount expended in improving each park. Fourth. The annual cost of maintenance of each park. In reply thereto I beg to state that Congress has installed four national military parks, under the charge of the War Department, as follows: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park-act of August 19, 1890. (26 Stat., p. 333.) The Shiloh National Military Park-act of December 27, 1894. (28 Stat., p. 597). The Gettysburg National Military Park-act of February 11, 1895. (28 Stat., p. 651.) The Vicksburg National Military Park-act of February 21, 1899. (30 Stat., pp. 841-843.) The area and original cost of each of the above-mentioned parks are as follows: It is proper to state that the several park commissions have reported as desirable the acquisition of additional lands as follows: |