mour, of New York, was among those who declined to act in the matter. In the opinion of many military men the new plan of recruitment within the lines of military operations, was objectionable; and commanding generals held it in particular disfavor on account of the opportunities it would afford for reckless and injurious competition among State agents, and for the infraction of sound military rules. The following letter from Gen. Sherman to one of the Massachusetts agents, doubtless expresses the views of a large class of officers: HEADQ'RS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, John A. Spooner, Esq., Agent for the Commonwealth On applying to Gen. Webster at Nashville, he will grant you a pass through our lines to those States, and, as I have had considerable experience in those States, would suggest recruiting depots to be established at Macon and Columbus, Miss., Selma, Montgomery, and Mobile, Alabama, and Columbus, Milledgeville, and Savannah, Georgia. I do not see that the law restricts you to black recruits, but you are at liberty to collect white recruits also. It is waste of time and money to open rendezVous in Northwest Georgia, for I assure you I have not seen an able-bodied man, black or white, there, fit for a soldier, who was not in this army or the one opposed to it. You speak of the impression going abroad that I am opposed to the organization of colored regiments. My opinions are usually very positive, and there is no reason why you should not know them. Though entertaining profound reverence for our Congress, I do doubt their wisdom in the passage of this law: 1st. Because civilian agents about an army are a nuisance. 2d. The duty of citizens to fight for their country is too sacred a one to be peddled off by buying up the refuse of other States. er quotas of the States. 6th. This bidding and bantering for recruits, white and black, has delayed the reenforcement of our armies at the times when such reenforcements would have enabled us to make our successes permanent. 7th. The law is an experiment which, pending war, is unwise and unsafe, and has delayed the universal draft, which I firmly believe will become necessary to overcome the wide-spread resistance offered us; and I also believe the universal draft will be wise and beneficial; for under the Providence of God it will separate the sheep from the goats, and demonstrate what citizens will fight for their country, and what will only talk. No one will infer from this that I am not a friend of the negro as well as the white race; I contend that the treason and rebellion of the master freed the slave, and the armies I have commanded have conducted to safe points more negroes than those of any general officer in the army; but I prefer negroes for pioneers, teamsters, cooks, and servants, others gradually to experiment in the art of the sol dier, beginning with the duties of local garrisons, such as we had at Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, Nashville, and Chattanooga; but I would not draw on the poor race for too large a proportion of its ac tive, athletic young men, for some must remain to seek new homes and provide for the old and youngthe feeble and helpless. you they are shared by a large proportion of our These are some of my peculiar notions, but I assure fighting men. You may show this to the agents of the other States in the same business as yourself. I am, &c., (Signed) W. T. SHERMAN, Maj.-Gen. Official copy-L. M. DAYTON, Aide-de-Camp. The result of the recruitment in the insurrectionary States were reported by the Provost Marshal General as on the whole unfavorable, and the system has been practically abolished. The necessity of procuring substitutes from a class of the population not liable to draft, led to the enlistment of a large body of recruits of foreign birth, who had never been naturalized. Under these circumstances any considerable increase in the emigration from Europe to America was looked upon with suspicion by foreign governments or statesmen unfriendly to the United States, as having been caused by improper inducements, in violation of municipal law. It was even charged, by persons high in influence in England, that agents from the United States had visited Ireland and the British North American provinces, for the purpose of enlisting men in the army, and had despatched many recruits to America, ostensibly as mechanics or farm laborers. By a resolution adopted by the United States Senate, on May 24th, the President was requested to state If any authority has been given any one, either in this country or elsewhere, to obtain recruits in Ireland and Canada for our army or navy; and whether any such recruits have been obtained, or whether, to the knowledge of the Government, Irishmen or Canadians have been induced to emigrate to this country in order to be recruited; and if so, what measures, if any, have been adopted in order to arrest such conduct. to the Secretary of State, who replied, that no The resolution was referred by the President authority to recruit abroad had been given by the United States Government, and that applications for such authority had been invariably rejected. The Government had no knowledge, he added, that any such recruits had been obtained in the provinces named, or in any foreign country. In two or three instances it had been reported to the State Department that recruiting agents had crossed the Canadian frontier without authority, with a view to engage recruits or reclaim deserters. The complaints thus made were immediately investigated; the proceedings of such recruiting agents were promptly disavowed and condemned; the recruits or deserters, if any had been brought into the United States, were at once returned, and the offending agents were dismissed from the public service. With respect to the inducements held out by the Government to emigrants, he observed: In the land and naval forces of the United States there are found not only some Canadians, some Englishmen, and some Irishmen, but also many subjects of continental European powers. All of these persons were voluntary immigrants into the United States. They enlisted after their arrival on our shores, of their own free accord, within our own limits and jurisdiction and not in any foreign country. The Executive Government has no knowledge of the nature of the special inducements which led these volunteers to emigrate from their native countries, or of the purposes for which they emigrated. It has, however, neither directly nor indirectly invited their immigration by any offers of employment in the military or naval service. When such persons were found within the United States, exactly the same inducements to military service were open to them which, by authority of law, were offered at the same time to citizens of the United States. It is a notorious fact, manifest to all the world, that a vigorous and continual tide of emigration is flowing from Europe, and especially from portions of the British empire, and from Germany and Sweden, into the United States. This immigration, like the immigration which preceded it, results from the reciprocal conditions of industrial and social life in Europe and America. Of the mass of immigrants who arrive on our shores, far the largest number go immediately into the occupations of peaceful industry. Those, on the contrary, who are susceptible to the attractions of military life, voluntarily enter the national service with a similar class of our own native citizens, upon the same equal in ducements and with the same patriotic motives. There is no law of nations and no principle of international comity which requires us to refuse their aid in the cause of the country and humanity. Until 1864 the inferior standing of colored troops in the army with respect to bounty, pay, and pensions remained unchanged, notwithstanding the protest of the Secretary of War and other officials against the injustice thus done to men who shared all the dangers and privations of the war, and who were also liable to draft. The Army Appropriation Bill, passed in June, 1864, disposed of this vexed question by putting the colored soldiery on a footing with the white troops. The following are the sections of the bill relating to the subject: 2. All persons of color who have been, or may be, mustered into the military service of the United States, shall receive the same uniform, clothing, arms, equipments, camp equipage, rations, medical and hospital attendance, pay, and emoluments, other than bounty, as other soldiers of the regular or volunteer forces of the United States of a like arm of the service, from and after the 1st of January, 1864. And every person of color who shall hereafter be bounty as the President shall order in the different States and parts of the United States, not exceeding mustered into the service shall receive such sums in one hundred dollars. 3. All persons enlisted and mustered into the service as volunteers under the call dated October 17, 1868, for three hundred thousand volunteers, who were at the time of enlistment actually enrolled and subject to draft in the State in which they volunteered, shall receive from the United States the same amount of bounty, without regard to color. 4. All persons of color who were free on the 19th day of April, 1861, and who have been enlisted and mustered into the military service of the United States, shall from the time of their enlistment be entitled to receive the pay, bounty, and clothing allowed to such persons by the laws existing at the time of their enlistment; and the Attorney-General of the United States is hereby authorized to determine any question of law arising under this provis. ion; and if the Attorney-General aforesaid shall determine that any of such enlisted persons are entitled to receive any pay, bounty, or clothing, in addition to what they have already received, the Secretary of War shall make all necessary regulations to enable the pay department to make payment in accordance with such determination. (See CoxGRESS, U.S.) An order was soon after issued from the War Department to pay colored soldiers six months' full wages for the period embraced between January 1st and July 1st, 1864; and in August the Attorney-General, in accordance with the provisions of section 4, decided that colored men volunteering prior to 1864, were entitled to the same pay, bounty, and clothing, as other volunteers. By section 14 of the act of July 4, 1864, the widows and children of colored soldiers dying in battle, or of wounds or disease contracted in the military service, were declared entitled to pensions, provided such widows and children were free persons. be enlisted into the army, principally in the During the year colored troops continued to Southern States, although several regiments, whose organization had commenced in the North in 1863, departed previous to July for the seat of War. If the statement of the Solicitor of the War Department, quoted above, may be relied upon, upwards of 100,000 of this class of troops were enlisted in 1864. Opinions differed quite as much as in 1863, upon the propriety, politically considered, of employing negroes as soldiers, and upon their value in a military aspect; but toward the close of the year, in view of their soldierly conduct on various trying occasions, it seemed to become the settled conviction that they would form a useful branch of the service. The Corps d'Afrique organized by Gen. Banks in 1863, and intended to comprise about 15,000 men, was described in May, 1864, by an army corre spondent in Louisiana, as greatly depleted in numbers by disease, by discharges for physical incapacity, and by desertions, and in consequence thoroughly demoralized. The rate of mortality among the men was said to have been unprecedented in the history of the war, and their idle, wasteful, and slovenly habits, it was alleged, made them unfitted for soldiers. On the other hand Adjutant-General Thomas, who had devoted several months of the previous year to organizing negro regiments in the South, and who had conceived a high opinion of their capacity, was amply confirmed in his views by his experience of 1864, and urged the necessity of enlisting more of this class of troops, as also of raising their pay. He also issued the following order imposing upon negro troops their proportionate share of military duty: The incorporation into the army of the United States of colored troops renders it necessary that they should be brought, as speedily as possible, to the highest state of discipline. Accordingly, the practice which has hitherto prevailed, no doubt from necessity, of requiring these troops to perform most of the labor on fortifications, and the labor and fatigue duties of permanent stations and camps, will cease, and they will be only required to take their fair share of fatigue duty with white troops. This is necessary to prepare them for the higher duties of conflicts with the enemy. By order of the Secretary of War. L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General. The colored regiments continued to be officered by white men, who were subjected to an unusually strict examination by a board appointed for that purpose. Up to August, the total number of officers examined amounted to 2,471, of whom 1,486 were accepted. Although desertions from the service during the year were not so numerous as in the early years of the war, when discipline was less strict, and the offence was considered in a less odious light, the number has still been sufficiently large to cause the Government considerable embarrassment. This resulted in a great measure from the inferior class of men enlisted into the army through the medium of bounty and substitute brokers, and from the unwise leniency shown by the Government to offenders. For a long time the death penalty seems to have been practically abolished, and the activity of the Provost Marshals had in consequence little or no effect in lessening the number of absentees without leave. Unprincipled men, having no fear of execution before their eyes, risked the chance of recapture and the comparatively slight punishment which would follow, and escaped with their bounty money, a few weeks, or even days, after being mustered into the service. As an illustration of the extent to which the practice was carried, it is stated that out of a detachment of 625 recruits sent to reenforce a New Hampshire regiment in the Army of the Potomac, 137 deserted on the passage, 82 to the enemy's picket line, and 36 to the rear, leaving but 370 men, or less than 60 per cent. available for duty. These men, it may be observed, were for the most part substitutes, or recruits purchased through brokers at exorbitant prices to fill up a quota, and who, as "bounty jumpers," drove a profitable business, some of them having probably received bounty, deserted, and reënlisted eight or ten times. The drafted men, or those personally volunteering, were, as a class, free from this vice. The desertions in the Army of the Potomac were greatly increased by a proclamation from Gen. Lee (intended as an offset to one issued by Gen. Grant), offering to send Federal deserters North. Thousands probably availed themselves of this opportunity, and found their way back to the loyal States, there perhaps to reenlist and again desert; and a small percentage entered the rebel service. The evil finally increased to such a degree that the death penalty was restored and unsparingly used. During the latter part of the year executions of deserters were of almost daily occurrence in the Army of the Potomac, and almost immediately a diminution in the number of cases was observable, which has continued to the present time. Another, but less numerous class of deserters, was composed of men who had escaped from hospitals, or had never returned from furlough, of whom several thousand had taken refuge in the British provinces. Numbers of these, upon expressing contrition and a desire to return to duty, were pardoned by the President. The total number of deserters of all kinds was estimated by Senator Wilson, in March, at 40,000, and it has probably not materially increased since that time. The Provost Marshal General reported 39,392 deserters and stragglers arrested by his officers between Oct. 1st, 1863, and Oct. 1st, 1864, and the total number arrested, from the establishment of the special bureau having charge of the matter to Oct. 1st, 1864, at 60,760. Boards of examination have been kept up to inquire into causes of absence from duty by officers. The effect has been to diminish the number of cases published and referred to the boards to 364, for 11 months; whereas, before their organization, from 100 to 200 were reported monthly for absence without leave alone. The operations connected with the Quartermaster-General's department were, during the year, on an extensive scale, and the army was reported to have been well supplied with all the essentials of military equipment, with fuel, forage, and other necessaries, and to have gained in mobility. By an act approved July 4th, 1864, the department was thoroughly reorganized, so that the grades of rank and authority should be proportioned to the duties and responsibilities; and the change has proved in every respect beneficial. Among the new organizations connected with this department was a construction corps, under the direction of General McCullum, which operated upon a thousand miles of railroad in connection with the movements of the armies, and whose labors are characterized by the Secretary of War as "remarkable triumphs of military and engineering skill." Six thousand five hundred miles of military telegraph were in operation in 1864, of which 3,000 were constructed during the year. The supply of horses and mules for army use has been at the rate of 500 per day, which is also the average rate of their destruction; and notwithstanding this enormous drain upon the resources of the country, the stock gives no signs of diminution. The Secretary of War also reports, that for the better protection of the depots of the quartermaster's bureau from rebel raids, the Quartermaster-General was directed to cause the persons employed in this department, at the principal and exposed depots, to be organized into military companies and regiments for internal guard duty and for local defence. These organizations, comprising a force of several thousand men, have been called upon several times during the last year to take the place of regular troops, and have done good service. On June 30th, 1864, 190 hospitals, with a capacity of 120,521 beds, were in active operation; and during the year the health of the entire army was reported better than is 100 usual with troops engaged in arduous campaigns. At the close of the year the number of sick and wounded, both with their commands and in general hospitals, was less than 16 per cent. of the strength of the army. The number sick with their respective commands, was 4 per cent., and in general hospitals 5 and per cent. of the strength. Of the 6 and 46 per cent. wounded, nearly 1 per cent. were with their respective commands; the rest in general hospitals. By an act approved March 11th, 1864, a uniform system of ambulances was established, which in operation has proved very successful. The corps is made up of officers and enlisted men, detailed for the service, under the control of the chief medical directors of the several armies. A captain commands the ambulances of an army corps; a first lieutenant those of each division of such corps; a second lieutenant those of each brigade of such division, and a sergeant those of each regiment. To each ambulance three privates are attached, and to each wagon one. From three to one ambulances are attached to each regiment, according to its numerical strength. The ambulance corps is uniformed and thoroughly instructed in the most expeditious manner of removing sick and wounded men, and has the sole charge of accompanying them to the rear, in action or on the march. The latter provision has greatly increased the efficiency of troops in battle, by preventing the confusion previously caused by men indiscriminately conveying wounded comrades from the field. By an act passed in 1864 the pay of privates in infantry, cavalry, and artillery organizations was increased to $16 per month, and that of petty officers in proportion, the rations remaining the same. The Secretary of War reported the whole army as paid up to Aug. 31st, 1864. Medals of honor were awarded during the year in many cases to deserving non-commissioned officers and privates. By another act officers employing soldiers as servants are subjected to a reduction of pay. This provision was intended to prevent the withdrawal of troops from active duty for menial purposes, which has proved injurious to the service. In cases where civilians are employed by those who are allowed servants, the law does not apply. The Provost Marshal General reported the Veteran Reserve corps (formerly the Invalid corps) as consisting, October 1, 1864, of 764 officers and 28,738 men; its discipline and instruction good; and that the entire corps is doing duty which would otherwise have to be performed by an equal number of able-bodied troops detached from the armies in the field; and that it is yet inadequate in numbers to fill the demands made on it. It has rendered valuable service in guarding the depots of volunteers, substitutes, and drafted men, and in escorting detachments to their regiments; and during the summer campaign of the Army of the Potomac its operations were extended almost to the front. At the close of 1864 only five revolutionary pensioners were surviving, to whom the 38th Congress, at its second session, voted a gratuity of $300 a year, in addition to their regular pension of $100. The number of army pensioners (other than Revolutionary) who were paid during the fourteen months ending the 30th of June, 1864, was 22,767; of widows (other than Revolutionary), orphans, and dependent mothers, 25,433; and the total number, including Revolutionary pensioners and widows of Revolutionary pensioners, who received pensions during that period, was 49,630, to whom was paid the sum of $4,340,368.60. Of this amount more than $3,500,000 were on account of disability or death incurred during the existing war. The supplies of ordnance produced during the year included 1,750 pieces of ordnance, 2,361 artillery carriages and caissons, 802,525 small arms, 794,055 sets of accoutrements and harness, 1,674,244 projectiles for cannon, 12,740,146 pounds of bullets and lead, 8,409,400 pounds of gunpowder, 169,490,029 cartridges for small-arms, in addition to large quantities partially made up at the arsenals. The supplies furnished to the military service during the same period included 1,141 pieces of ordnance, 1,896 artillery carriages and caissons, 455,910 small-arms, 502,044 sets of accoutrements and harness, 1,913,753 projectiles for cannon, 7,624,685 pounds of bullets and lead, 464,549 rounds of artillery ammunition, 152,067 sets of horse equipments, 112,087,553 cartridges for small-arms, 7,544,044 pounds of gunpowder. The national armory at Springfield, Mass., was reported in a condition to turn out 300,000 of the best quality of rifle muskets annually. The stock on hand, at the close of the year, amounted to a million and a quarter, exclusive of the arms in the hands of the troops. At the close of 1864 the military geographical departments were in charge of the following generals: Department of the Tennessee-Maj.-Gen. O. O. Howard. of the Cumberland-Maj.-Gen. George H. Thomas. of the Ohio-Maj.-Gen. John M. Schofield. 66 66 of the East-Maj.-Gen. John A. Dix. 66 of the Gulf-Maj.-Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut 66 66 of North Carolina and Virginia-Maj.-Gen. B. F. Butler. of the Northwest-Maj.-Gen. John Pope. 66 of Washington-Maj.-Gen. Christopher C. Augur. "of Pennsylvania-Maj.-Gen. George Cadwallader. of Western Virginia-Maj.-Gen. George Crook. 66 of New Mexico-Brig.-Gen. James H. Carleton. 66 of the Pacific-Maj.-Gen. Irwin McDowell. of Kansas-Maj.-Gen. Samuel R. Curtis. of the Middle Department-Maj.-Gen. Lewis Wallace. 66 of the South-Maj.-Gen. John G. Foster. The several army corps, were, on Jan. 1st, where the county is not divided into wards, towns, 1865, commanded as follows: *1st. Maj.-Gen. W. S. Hancock. 4th. Maj.-Gen. D. S. Stanley. 23d. Maj.-Gen. John M. Schofield. 25th. Maj. Gen. Godfrey Weitzel. By a return made to the United States Senate by the Secretary of War, it appears that on Jan. 1st, 1865, there were sixty-six major-generals of volunteers, and two hundred and sixtyseven brigadier-generals of volunteers in the service, of whom forty-five major-generals and two hundred brigadiers held active commands. Of the remainder two were before the Committee on the Conduct of the War; twenty were awaiting orders; two were employed as commissioners for exchange of prisoners; twenty-seven were members of courts-martial, military commissions, etc.; fifteen were off duty on account of sickness or wounds; fourteen were employed on special duty; three were absent on furlough; three were under trial; and two were prisoners of war, one of them, Gen. Hayes, having been released on parole at Richmond, to superintend the distribution of supplies sent to Federal soldiers in rebel prisons. Under the head of "Enrolment and Draft" the process for obtaining men to serve in the national armies, adopted by the act of Congress of March 3d, 1863, was described in the 3d volume of this work. During 1864 two acts, amendatory of this act or making further provisions on the subject, that of February 24th, and that of July 4th, were passed by the 38th Congress. By section 2 of the former act, which authorizes the President, at his discretion, to call for men for military service, it was provided, That the quota of each ward of a city, town, township, precinct, or election district, or of a county * Reorganizing and not in active service. townships, precincts, or election districts, shall be as nearly as possible in proportion to the number of men resident therein liable to render military service, taking into account, as far as practicable, the number which has been previously furnished therefrom; and in ascertaining and filling said quota there shall be taken into account the number of men who have heretofore entered the naval service of the United States, and whose names are borne upon the enrolment lists as already returned to the office of the Provost Marshal General of the United States. When a quota is not filled within the time designated by the President a draft is to be made, and should this prove unsuccessful, further drafts are to be ordered, until the quota of each district is filled. Enrolled and drafted men are authorized to furnish acceptable substitutes "who are not liable to draft and are not in the military or naval service; " and the principals are exempted from military service during the time for which such substitutes are accepted. Persons in the military or naval service, however, who have served a year and have less than six months more to serve, are available as substitutes "in the troops of the State in which they enlisted." The money commutation clause of the act of 1863 is declared to exempt a drafted person only from draft on a single quota, and for no longer period than a year. The boards of enrolment are directed to enrol all persons liable to draft and accidentally omitted, also All persons who shall arrive at the age of twenty years before the draft; all aliens who shall declare their intention to become citizens; all persons dis charged from the military or naval service of the United States who have not been in such servics two years during the present war; and all persons who have been exempted under the provisions of the 2d section of the act to which this is an amendment, but who are not exempted by the provisions the time of the enrolment and the draft, shall have of this act. The names of all persons who, between reached the age of forty-five, are to be stricken from the enrolment. Sailors in the merchant service drafted into the military service are allowed, under certain conditions, to enlist in the navy. Persons exempted from enrolment or draft must be such as are rejected as physically or mentally unfit for the service, those already in the service, and those who have served two years during the present war and been honorably discharged. Those sections of the act of 1863 providing for the enrolment of two classes of persons are repealed. The act further provides that members of religious denominations conscientiously opposed to the bearing of arms, or prohibited from so doing by their rules and articles of faith, shall be considered, if drafted, non-contestants, and be assigned to duty in hospitals, etc., or be exempted by the payment of $300. The following section (24) relates to the enrolment of colored persons: All able-bodied male colored persons, between the ages of twenty and forty-five years, resident in the United States, shall be enrolled according to the provisions of this act, and of the act to which this is an amendment, and form part of the national forces; |