well authenticated, were brought forward subsequently, and much embarrassed the business of this bureau. The system of independent acceptances was terminated by orders from the Secretary of War, dated February 21, 1862. The border States, it will be remembered, suffered greatly from civil commotion in the summer and fall of 1861. Their lawful authorities found themselves unable to keep down the disloyal spirit and suppress the armed outbreaks within their jurisdiction without the assistance of the federal government. Appeals were made by the governors of Missouri and Maryland for authority to raise militia forces for service within the limits of these States, to aid in establishing and maintaining law and order. The authority being obtained, the governor of Missouri raised one regiment of infantry, of seven hundred and seventy (770) men, two batteries of artillery, of one hundred and seventy-one (171) men, and fourteen (14) regiments of cavalry, of ten thousand and eighty-three (10,083) men, which force was to serve during the war and co-operate with the troops in the service of the United States in repelling invasion and suppressing rebellion in said State. Similar authority empowered the governor of Maryland to raise a force of four thousand five hundred (4,500) men for service within the limits of that State. The raising of these troops for State service, at the expense of the United States, was subsequently approved by the act of Congress of February 13, 1862,* which limited, however, the number authorized for the State of Missouri to ten thousand, (10,000,) those in excess being mustered out. The same act provided, however, that no volunteers or militia from any State or Territory should be mustered into the service of the United States on any terms or conditions confining their services to the limits of said State or Territory, or their vicinities. Under the authority of the acts of Congress referred to in the foregoing, a force of six hundred and thirty-seven thousand one hundred and twenty-six (637,126) men was in service in the spring of 1862. The popular impression was then that this immense number would be sufficient for overthrowing the military power of the rebellion, and putting down all armed resistance to the federal government. Subsequent events proved it erroneous, but Congress and the people deemed it necessary to check the enormous current expenditures by. discontinuing the enlistment of men for the army. The popular demand was yielded to, and on the 3d of April the volunteer recruiting service was closed by General Ordert from the War Department. Under this order recruitment for the army was immediately stopped, the property at the rendezvous sold, and the offices closed throughout the country. Owing to the unexpected and unfavorable turn of the fortunes of war in the following months, and the consequent depletion of the armies in the field, the recruiting service was resumed by General Orders of June 6, 1862.§ The recruiting business had been so effectually closed under the General Order of April 3, that the resumption of it was attended by about the same difficulties that were encountered when it was first undertaken. Before they had been fairly overcome the disastrous result of the campaign in the Peninsula, exercised its discouraging effects and interfered with the progress of recruitment. See Appendix, Doc. 35. + See Appendix, Doc. 1, for strength of the entire military force of the United States at certain dates in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, and 1865. + See Appendix, Doc. 16. See Appendix, Doc. 17. CALL OF JULY 2, 1862, FOR 300,000 MEN FOR THREE YEARS' SERVICE. The numerical losses the army had experienced prior to July 1, 1862,* rendered large additions to it absolutely necessary. This public need was recognized with their usual foresight by the governors of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Michigan, Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, who, with the president of the military board of Kentucky, on the 28th of June, 1862,† requested the President of the United States at once to call upon the several States for such number of men as might be required to fill up the military organizations in the field, and increase the army to such force as mght be necessary to garrison and hold all the numerous cities and military positions that had been captured, and to finish the work of crushing the rebellion. The President, in his response of the date of July 1, 1862,† announced that he had decided to call into the service an additional force of three hundred thousand (300,000) men. At the time this call was made the war had been in progress a little more than one year; the attempt to take Richmond had resulted in failure; the desire to enter the service, prompted by the first ebullition of military ardor, had subsided, and was replaced by the popular demand that the different States should furnish proportional numbers of men for the army. No such distribution had been previously made, and in order that this call might be fairly apportioned, it was necessary to establish with each State an account, showing what it had furnished and what it ought to have furnished up to the date of this call, and make the assignment of the new call in conformity thereto. To ascertain the amount of service which either one of the States would have rendered, if it had borne its just share, or, in other words, what part of the aggregate service, furnished up to this period by all the States, was justly due from each State, it became necessary to compare the population of each State with the aggregate population of all the States from which troops were required. It was obvious that each State should contribute in proportion to the number of its inhabitants. This was required by the statute of July 22, 1861, chapter 9, section 1, for the apportionment of volunteers among the several States, and there was at that time no better basis to act upon. The number of men (and periods of their service) furnished by all the States prior to the call of July, 1862, was ascertained from the records of the Adjutant General's office, and the account of each State determined as follows: The proportion of troops which should have been furnished by any State was to the number furnished from all the States, as the number of inhabitants of that State was to the aggregate number of inhabitants of all the States. The solution of this formula gave for each State the number of troops which it should have furnished in order to make up its equal and just share of the service rendered by all the States prior to the call of July 2, 1862. If the number of troops actually furnished by any State, as shown by the records of the Adjutant General's office, fell short of this required proportion, that deficit was charged; if the number exceeded, it was credited to the State in question.§ DRAFT OF AUGUST 4, 1862, FOR 300,000 MILITIA FOR NINE MONTHS' SERVICE. The great depletion of the old regiments by the campaigns of 1862 induced special efforts during the summer and fall of that year to secure recruits for See Appendix, Doc. 1, giving strength of the army at various dates. + See Appendix, Doc. 18. + See Appendix, Doc. 35. For results of this calculation and statement of troops raised under this call, see Appendix, them. It was, however, perceived early in August that these efforts would not meet with success, and that the call of July 2, where filled at all, would be filled mainly by new organizations. These the governors of States authorized partly from a misapprehension of the real needs of the service, and partly from a more or less well-founded belief that, without the stimulus of commissions in new regiments, individual efforts, heretofore so successful in raising men, would not be made by influential parties in different localities. In view of this failure and the pressing want of troops, a draft for three hundred thousand (300,000) militia, to serve for a term of nine months, was ordered by the President on the 4th of August, 1862.* The order directed that if any State failed to furnish its quota of men under the preceding call for volunteers, the deficiency should be made up by a special draft from the militia by the 15th of August. It also announced that steps would be taken for the promotion of officers for meritorious services, for preventing the appointment of incompetent persons as officers in the volunteer and regular forces, and for ridding the service of the unworthy ones already commissioned t This order was the first step taken by the government towards carrying out the maxim upon which the security of republican governments mainly depends, viz: that every citizen owes his country military service. To its adoption, and the subsequent rigorous resort to conscription, the salvation of the Union is due, more than to any other cause. The draft under this order commenced on the 3d of September, 1862, and was conducted by the State authorities. Of the three hundred thousand (300,000) men called for, about eighty-seven thousand were credited as having been drafted into the service under the call. This number was much reduced by desertion before the men could be got out of their respective States, and but a small portion of them actually joined the ranks of the army. This draft constituted the last demand of the general government for men. previous to the inauguration of the system of conscription in the following spring. It will appear evident that a just execution of a conscription law in the future by an equitable apportionment of quotas depended, to a great extent, on correctness in the distribution of the last call by the State authorities, and the accuracy with which the records were kept and preserved for reference. Upon subsequent examination it was found that the quotas assigned by the War Department to States had not generally been distributed by the State and local authorities in proportion to the men previously furnished by the different districts or towns, and that the accounts of men furnished by the minor localities were neither complete nor correct. This fact afterwards occasioned serious difficulty when the new conscription law was put into operation, and caused unjust complaints against the Provost Marshal General's Bureau for omissions before its creation, for which no branch of the general government was responsible. It is a matter of record that under the volunteer system prevailing in the early part of the war, different localities contributed men very unequally, owing to varying degrees of patriotism and various other causes. When the government required further levies, and ordered the draft of August 4 to obtain them, the quotas were assigned on the basis of population, and it was proper, therefore, in apportioning them, that the men already contributed should be taken into consideration. The War Department kept the record of the number of men furnished by each State, and allotted quotas to States according to the number previously furnished. The adjustment of quotas within the State was committed to the State authorities by order of the War Department,‡ with the direction that they be apportioned by the governors among the several counties, * See Appendix, Doc. 19. For quotas assigned and troops raised under this call, see Appendix, Doc. 6. (Table of all troops called for and furnished.) + See Appendix, Doc. 20, Art. 1. and, when practicable, among the subdivisions of counties, so that allowance should be made to the counties and subdivisions for volunteers previously furnished. The rule prescribed at this time by the Secretary of War of apportioning the number of men to be raised among the different localities, so that the whole number called for should be obtained, and each place required to furnish its share after due allowance was made for what it had previously furnished, is the same subsequently observed by this bureau. Unfortunately, it was not generally applied to the State draft of 1862, as required by the orders of the War Department. I endeavored, soon after the creation of my office, to obtain a statement, showing the account of each sub-district, from the officers who had charge of the records, but without success. The difficulties arising from the radical change effected by the enrolment act in the mode of raising troops, through the transfer of the labor and responsibility connected therewith, from the State to the United States authorities, were increased by the absence of this information. PART II. PUBLIC RECOGNITION OF THE NECESSITY OF A GENERAL CONSCRIPTION. During the latter part of 1862 the necessity for a radical change in the method of raising troops in order to prosecute the war to a successful issue became more and more apparent. The demand for re-enforcements from the various armies in the field steadily and largely exceeded the current supply of men. The old agencies for filling the ranks proved more and more ineffective. It was evident that the efforts of the government for the suppression of the rebellion would fail without resort to the unpopular, but nevertheless truly republican, measure of conscription. The national authorities, no less than the purest and wisest minds in Congress, and intelligent and patriotic citizens throughout the country, perceived that, besides a more reliable, regular, and abundant supply of men, other substantial benefits would be derived from the adoption and enforcement of the principle that every citizen, not incapacitated by physical or mental disability, owes military service to the country in the hour of extremity. It would effectually do away with the unjust and burdensome disproportion in the number of men furnished by different States and localities. But it was not easy to convince the public mind at once of the justice and wisdom of conscription. It was a novelty, contrary to the traditional military policy of the nation. The people had become more accustomed to the enjoyment of privileges than to the fulfilment of duties under the general government, and hence beheld the prospect of compulsory service in the army with an unreasonable dread. Among the laboring classes especially it produced great uneasiness. Fortunately, the loyal political leaders and press early realized the urgency of conscription, and, by judicious agitation, gradually reconciled the public to it. When the enrolment act was introduced in Congress in the following winter, the patriotic people of the north were willing to see it become a law. THE PASSAGE OF THE ENROLMENT ACT. After a protracted, searching, and animated discussion, extending through nearly the whole of the short session of the thirty-seventh Congress, the enrolment act was passed, and became a law on the 3d of March, 1863. It was the * See Appendix, Doc. 20, Art. 1. + See Appendix, Doc. 30. first law enacted by Congress by which the government of the United States appealed directly to the nation to create large armies without the intervention of the authorities of the several States. The main objects of the law were, in general terms: first, to enroll and hold liable to military duty all citizens capable of bearing arms not exempted therefrom by its provisions; second, to call forth the national forces by draft when required; third, to arrest deserters and return them to their proper commands. The public safety would have been risked by longer delay in the enactment of this law. A general apathy prevailed throughout the country on the subject of volunteering. Recruiting had subsided, while desertion had greatly increased and had grown into a formidable and widespread evil. The result of the important military operations during the first months of 1863 had been unfavorable and exercised a depressing effect on the public mind. The battle of Stone river left the army of the Cumberland crippled upon the field, and forced it to inactivity for months in an intrenched camp. Our advance on Vicksburg, by way of Haines's Bluff, had been repulsed with serious loss. A knowledge of the extent of the disaster at Fredericksburg had reached and dispirited the loyal people. The first attack on Fort Sumter by the navy had failed. The short but bloody and disastrous campaign of Chancellorsville was made, and the army of the Potomac once more confined to the defensive. The rebel army was stronger in numbers than at any other period of the war. And last, not least, a powerful party in the north, encouraged by these events, opposed the raising of the new levies, and especially the enforcement of the new conscription law. At this inauspicious stage of affairs this bureau was brought into existence. The duties required of it under the enrolment act were of vast extent. The means for securing the ends proposed were inadequately provided. No appropriation of money was made for its support. The only officers authorized under the law were Provost Marshal General, with the rank of colonel, and a provost marshal for each congressional district, with the rank of captain. For the purposes of enrolment and draft, a board was created in each district, consisting of the provost marshal, a civilian, and a surgeon. This board had power to appoint persons to make the enrolment. No other means were designated by the original act to carry out its designs. ORGANIZATION OF THE BUREAU OF THE PROVOST MARSHAL GENERAL. On the 17th of March, 1863, I was assigned to duty as Provost Marshal General by order of the Secretary of War,* in pursuance of section 5 of the enrolment act. † The raising of troops by draft was alone assigned by law to this bureau. But on the 1st of May, 1863, an order was issued‡ giving it the superintendence of the entire volunteer recruiting service. The connexion between these two modes of raising troops was so close that, in order to insure harmony and success in their management, it was necessary that both should be under the same bureau. On the 28th of April, 1863, the bureau was charged by General Orders, § framed by the chief of the bureau, with the organization of an invalid corps, (later called Veteran Reserve Corps.) The troops of the corps were to be under its control. The business of the bureau having become regulated in a general way, my own office was organized into seven several branches, viz: First branch-general and miscellaneous business.-This embraced all that did not belong to other branches, designated below. Two officers were put on duty in it. The first was, in fact, principal assistant and second in command to myself in the bureau. The second acted in the capacity of an assistant adjutant general. See Appendix, Doc. 21. |