of the Veteran Reserve Corps branch from May 23, 1863, until November 9, 1863. Colonel M. N. Wisewell, Veteran Reserve Corps, who served in charge of the Veteran Reserve Corps branch from November 9, 1863, until December 20, 1864. Brevet Major James McMillan, captain 2d United States infantry, who served in charge of the Veteran Reserve Corps branch from December 20, 1864, until October 2, 1865. Captain J. W. DeForest, Veteran Reserve Corps, who has served in charge of the Veteran Reserve Corps branch from October 2, 1865, until the present time. Brevet Lieutenant Colonel J. H. Baxter, surgeon United States volunteers, who has served as chief medical officer of the bureau from January 11, 1864, until the present time. The officers detailed as "Assistant Provost Marshals General" in the several States deserve, as a class, honorable mention. Their names are borne on the register, entitled Doc. 33, appended to this report. I ask special attention to the faithful and efficient manner in which the district provost marshals, commissioners, and surgeons, as a class, have performed the duties devolving upon them from the commencement of their term of office to the close of the war. In general, these officers were appointed each upon the recommendation of the representative of his district in Congress. Mostly without military experience, they undertook the discharge of duties not only arduous in themselves, but rendered additionally so by the fact that they were without precedent, as no like service had hitherto been required of officers of the government. In order to perform the duties defined by the enrolment act and the regulations of this bureau, and others specially assigned to them, they were obliged to acquaint themselves with the business of the Adjutant General's office, the Quartermaster, Commissary, and Ordnance departments, in the details of clothing, subsisting, arming, and equipping of conscripts and recruits and forwarding them to the army. Moreover, there was no district in which the board of enrolment was free from the annoyance of evil-disposed persons hostile to the government, who were ever ready and willing to embarrass its operations by stimulating resistance to the draft or discouraging enlistments. In some places, where this element seemed likely for a time to predominate, the firmness and energy of these officers enforced the law and convinced the seditious that resistance was futile. But the healthy influence exercised by them was not confined to combating and disarming the enemies of the government in their districts. It was also manifested in the great moral force exerted by them and their subordinates throughout the country in maintaining the national cause and aiding in the formation and dissemination of a proper public sentiment regarding the recruitment of the loyal army and the prosecution of the struggle for the integrity of the Union. The conscription was not presented as a popular measure, but as one of stern necessity; and it was not to be expected that the officers whose business it was to enforce it could escape the odium cast upon it by its opposers. It was difficult to convince the drafted man, whose family depended on his labor for support, and who was unable to provide a substitute or pay commutation, that the law which forced him to enter the service was intended for his benefit, or that the board of enrolment had not done him injustice in refusing to exempt him. The opponents of the measure were prompt to render pretended sympathy and encourage opposition by misrepresenting facts, magnifying cases of real hardship, or creating imaginary grievances where real ones were wanting. litigation; and in many instances fines were imposed upon them for acts done in their official capacity, pursuant to the orders of superior and competent authority. It gives me great pleasure to bear testimony to the satisfactory manner in which the duty has been discharged, notwithstanding the above-mentioned obstacles. I am confident that there is no class of public servants to whom the country is more indebted for valuable services rendered than to the district provost marshals and their associates, (comprising the boards of enrolment,) by whose efforts the army of the Union, which suppressed the rebellion, was mainly recruited. I have deemed it proper to allude to this subject, because it has been considered by the War Department that upon these officers brevet rank for meritorious services could not properly be bestowed. Their names appear in the register, Appendix, Doc. 34. The exigencies of the service rendered it impracticable to state the operations of the bureau in detail in the annual reports heretofore submitted. With the return of peace it is deemed appropriate and important that the statistical and other information of professional and historical value acquired by the bureau should be preserved in permanent form; and with a view to this I submit the subjoined report. In conclusion, I beg leave to remark, that while I am aware that no bureau can claim special credit for faithful performance of duty, still it may be properly said that, in accomplishing the results before enumerated, this bureau has the merit of having acted under extraordinary circumstances and difficulties; such as the vastness of the powers conferred on it, the peculiar character of the laws governing it, and, above all, the novelty in our country of the measure of conscription; and yet, without neglecting or evading any public duty, the rights. of citizens have been duly considered and personal liberty always respected, excepting in such measures as were necessary for the levying of troops and arrest of deserters, in execution of acts of Congress, and in these only to the extent required to provide for the public safety so far as it depended on this branch of the service. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War. JAMES B. FRY, Provost Marshal General. The subjects embraced in the accompanying report are subdivided as follows: PART I. Strength and position of the United States army at the commencement of the rebellion, with an account of the measures adopted for its increase during the year 1861. The recruitment of the army during the year 1862, with a reference to the laws under which it was conducted. PART II. The necessity for a change in the method of raising troops; passage of the act for enrolling and drafting the national forces, its objects, and the organization and operations of the Bureau of the Provost Marshal General under it during the year 1863. PART III. Operations of the Bureau of the Provost Marshal General during the year 1864, with an explanation of the method of assigning quotas, and an account of the re-enlistment and reorganization as veteran volunteers of the armies in the field during the winter of 1863-'64 PART IV. Recruitment of men of African descent, and the enlistment of men in rebel States for the credit of loyal States. PART V. Naval enlistments and credits, with an explanation of the discrep- ancies which arose between the number of men called for and the number actually PART VI. Statement of the casualties in the entire military force of the United States from the beginning of the war to the close of hostilities in April, PART VII. The subject of bounty discussed, with tabular statements showing the bounties paid during the rebellion by the United States, and by the different PART IX. Medical examination of recruits, &c., with statistical tables de- PART XI. Disbursements, accounts, &c., including an account of the commu- tation fund arising from the payment of money by drafted men to secure exemption PART XII. Appendix, containing subordinate reports, various laws, regulations, CONDITION OF THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES AT THE OUTBREAK OF AND DURING No fact was more patent in the early stages of the rebellion than the inadequacy of the force at the command of the government for the suppression of the insur- rection, and vindication of the federal authority throughout the country. On the 1st of January. 1861, the army of the United States was composed as follows:* This force was scattered over the territory of the United States, from the ignation and desertion of 313 commissioned officers who joined the rebellion. Notwithstanding the influence brought to bear upon the rank and file of the army, they were not materially affected by desertion during the same time. But few, if any, enlisted men turned against the government. The leaders of the rebellion commenced as early as December, 1860, to prepare the southern States for armed resistance to the government. With the spread of the secession movement from State to State, the military ardor of the southern people became more and more aroused, and organizations, under State auspices, sprang up everywhere, and before the loyal northern States actually began their preparations for the defence of the government, the south had a force larger than the army of the United States ready for the conflict. No addition was made tothe force at the disposal of the government until April 9, 1861, when under the authority of the 24th section of the act of March 3, 1803,* a call was made by the President, through an order of the Secretary of War,t upon the District of Columbia for ten companies for muster into the service of the United States. Other calls were made upon the District during the same month, but troops were not obtained under them without embarrassment and difficulty, and some conciliation on the part of the government. The first companies called out could not be mustered, because a large number of the men declined to be sworn into service. In one company with 100 men on its rolls, all except the officers, one sergeant, one corporal, one musician and ten privates, refused to parade for muster. Disloyalty was probably the motive of some. Others alleged their willingness to serve in defence of the District of Columbia, but declined to muster without a guarantee that they should not be required to serve beyond its limits. It was finally stipulated, as a condition of muster, that they were " to serve within the District, and not go without it." Thirty-eight (38) companies of the District militia were finally mustered into the United States service for three months; thirty-five (35) under the conditions specified above, and three (3) without conditions. It is proper to state that these troops, in whole or part, did subsequently serve out of the District without opposition or protest. THE CALL OF APRIL 15, 1861, FOR 75,000 MILITIA FOR THREE MONTHS. On the 12th of April, 1861, Fort Sumter was attacked by the rebels, and on the 15th of that month the first decided step was taken towards offensive efforts on the part of the government against the rebellion. On that day the proclamation calling for 75,000 militia, to aid in suppressing the revolutionary combinations of certain States, and to cause the laws to be duly executed, was issued.‡ The call was made under the 24th section of the act approved March 3, 1803, heretofore referred to.§ No recruits were raised for this force after the original muster into service of the different organizations composing it. Before these troops could be fully organized and brought properly into service their enlistments began to expire. Their only active experience was in the brief campaign terminating in the first battle of Bull Run. It went to demonstrate most strikingly the inefficiency of militia called into service for short periods. CALL OF MAY 3, 1861, FOR FORTY REGIMENTS OF VOLUNTEERS FOR THREE YEARS, AND FOR EIGHT REGIMENTS OF REGULARS AND 18,000 SEAMEN. On the 3d of May, 1861, the President issued a proclamation calling into service, in addition to the 75,000 militia called for by his proclamation of April 15, 1861, thirty-nine regiments of volunteer infantry and one of cavalry, amounting to 42,034 men, for the period of three years, unless sooner discharged; increasing * See Appendix, Doc. 35. + See Appendix, Doc. 32. See Appendix, Doc. 36. For quotas and number of troops furnished under this call see Appendix, Doc. 6, table 3. the regular army by eight regiments, amounting to 22,714 officers and men, and directing the enlistment of 18,000 seamen.* No quotas were assigned to States under this call. The patriotism of the loyal people was aroused to the highest pitch, and an intensely warlike spirit was kindled all over the north. A universal desire to enter the service of the government was manifested, and more offers of men were made than could be accepted. The call for volunteers was more than filled, seventy-one (71) regiments of volunteer infantry, one (1) regiment of volunteer heavy artillery, and ten (10) batteries of volunteer light artillery having been accepted and mustered into the service before the 1st of July.t This call was legalized during the extra session of Congress by the 3d section of the act approved August 6, 1861, and by section 1 of the act approved July 29, 1861. But few men were obtained for the regular force called for. The regiment of cavalry and regiment of artillery and one regiment of infantry were completed after considerable delay. The remaining regiments of infantry, though partially formed, were not fully organized during the war for want of recruits. The first battle of Bull Run was fought on the 21st of July, 1861. Great as this calamity seemed to the national cause, Congress was equal to the emergency. Instead of losing heart, it gathered new courage, and, under the impulse of the disaster, it redoubled its efforts for the suppression of the rebellion. Profiting by the experience of the past as to the inefficiency of troops enlisted for short terms of service, it passed on the 22d, 25th, and 31st of July a succession of acts authorizing the President to accept the services of volunteers, either as cavalry, infantry or artillery, in such numbers not exceeding 1,000,000, as he might deem necessary for the purpose of repelling invasion and suppressing insurrection, and directing that the volunteers thus accepted should serve for not exceeding three years nor less than six months. These acts of Congress were published in General Orders from the Adjutant General's office. The people responded so readily and enthusiastically to the appeals of Congress and the Executive that no formal call was issued. Regiments and companies were immediately offered in large numbers by States and individuals, and, as circumstances seemed to demand, requisitions were made on the governors. Individuals received special authority to raise military organizations, (termed independent acceptances,) in some instances without reference to the State authorities. The necessity for system and equality in the apportionment of the demands of the government for troops upon the several States was not recognized at this early period of the war. This neglect subsequently bore its legitimate fruit in the confusion and inequality of apportionment attending later calls, when military service was no longer popularly regarded as a privilege, but exacted as a duty. Some States, during this period, raised and offered troops which were declined, but which, if accepted, would have made up no more than their fair share of the total taken from all the States. It sometimes happened that troops thus rejected went from their own State into other States, and were there accepted and credited. When it became necessary in 1862 to make further calls, the credits to States for men furnished under these acts were made up in the manner shown in another part of this report. Under that adjustment the States from which they had been declined were on this account declared to be deficient, and were called upon to make good a deficiency which they had not been permitted to avoid. Claims and complaints arising from these causes, which, doubtless, were in many instances well founded, though not * See Appendix, Doc. 36. They are embraced in the figures in tables 2 and 3, Doc. 6, Appendix. |