Ordnance Office,
Washington, June 3, 1861.
Hon. Simon Cameron,
Secretary of War:
Sir: This office not having received any official information as to the entire military force which will be in service, and such information being essential for making its preparations to supply the stores which it is its province to furnish, proposes to assume as a basis an aggregate force of 250,000 men of all arms, cavalry, artillery, and infantry, and to give orders for providing the requisite supplies, and to make its estimates accordingly. Your instructions on this subject, either on the specified basis or such other as you may designate, are requested. In connection with this matter of providing supplies for arms, &c. , I deem it proper to report that I suggested, some five weeks since, when my views on this subject were requested, the propriety of obtaining from abroad from 50, 000 to 100,000 small-arms and eight batteries of rifled cannon, a note of which was taken at the time, but I have not been advised whether any measures have been taken to carry out that suggestion.
Respectfully, &c.,
JAS. W . RIPLEY,
Lieutenant-Colonel of Ordnance.