4f(o3 
 
 D"nQn0fl3* 
 
EEPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SECRETARY OF WAR 
 
 Confederate States of America, V 
 
 War Department, > 
 
 Richmond, Va., April 28, 1864. ) 
 
 To His Excellency Jefferson Davis, 
 
 President, fyc. : 
 
 Sir : I have the honor to submit to you the following report of the 
 operations of this department : 
 
 In the brief period since my last report, the inclemency of the 
 season has enforced comparative inaction on the armies in the field. 
 Operations on our part have been mainly defensive, but have been va- 
 ried by some brilliant affairs of an offensive character, executed gen- 
 erally by cavalry detachments. The enemy have essayed several 
 serious invasions, and various marauding incursions. The results 
 have been almost invariably honorable to our arms. 
 
 The large force thrown into Mississippi, with the purpose of march- 
 ing to the attack of Mobile, expended itself along less than a third of its 
 contemplated course, in discreditable ravages against non-combatants, 
 and hasty damages of the railroads, speedily repaired. A decisive re- 
 pulse of the formidable cavalry column designed to co-operate with them 
 from Tennessee, by not half its force of recently recruited men, un- 
 der the bold leadership of General Forrest, followed ; and then, at the 
 first intimation of the assembling of a force adequate to encounter 
 them, the main army, some twenty-five or thirty thousand strongs 
 beat a hasty retreat. Their whole plan of campaign was effectually 
 broken up, and besides the losses sustained in men and material, by 
 straggling and capture, their troops returned exhausted and discour- 
 aged to their strongholds, whence they have not ventured since to 
 emerge. 
 
More signal disaster punished their invasion to subjugate Florida. 
 They were met promptly and gallantly by Gone ral Finnegan, with a 
 smaller number of hastily collected troops, and completely defeated, 
 with heavy lose and utter rcut, in the decisive battle of Olustee 
 Driven back to the protection of their ships-of-war, they received 
 large reinforcements, and for a time threatened the renewal of their 
 invasion, but their most bloody, experience of the prowess of our 
 forces, a.nd the great consequent discouragement of their troops, 
 doubtless induced despair of success. They have since withdrawn 
 nearly their entire force, and relinquished as desperate the invasion 
 of a State so courageously defended. 
 
 Various raids of the enemy have been made by cavalry, generally 
 in indefensible portions of the Confederacy, and for the most part for 
 purposes of mere rapine and destruction. They have been conducted 
 with a precipitation most wasteful to their men and animals, and in- 
 dicative of constant apprehension, but have been marked by a ma- 
 lignant spirit and practices of infamy and barbarity, tjiat would have, 
 disgraced brigands or savages. Their warfare has been almost exclu- 
 sively on peaceful citizens, and their avowed object has been the de- 
 struction of private property ; the taking off of the slaves, even by 
 force ; the waste of stores and means of subsistence ; the destruc- 
 tion of animals and implements of husbandry, and the privation of 
 all means of future production and support to the whole people. 
 
 The most important of their raids, undertaken with an unusual 
 force and a special aim, surpassed even their many inhuman enter- 
 prises in the atrocity of its discovered designs. It was avowed as an 
 effort, with five thousand picked horsemen, sustained by light artil- 
 lery, to sieze and hold temporarily the Capital of the Confederacy, 
 and to liberate the large number of their prisoners held in its vicin- 
 ity. Our pickets had been thinned by the withdrawal of our cavalry 
 for recruitment and supply, and the enemy succeeded in starting, 
 without observation, on their enterprise, bu^t it was conducted with a 
 timidity and a feebleness, that were in ludicrous contrast with the 
 boldness of the conception and the extent of their means. Fifteen 
 hundred of their number, detached to Charlottesville, for the double 
 purpose of destroying our railroad communications and distracting 
 attention by varied attacks, with the view of subsequently reuniting 
 with the main column, were easily repulsed by a mere handful of half 
 armed artillerymen with a single gun, when in a few miles of their 
 -contemplated prize of Charlottesville, and compelled to fly affrighted 
 buck to their main army. Another detachment of some thousand 
 men, under an officer, Colonel Dahlgren, deemed by them one of es- 
 pecial merit, was sent across the country to pass some distance above 
 the city to the south of the James, and coming rapidly on that side, 
 where there was least reason to expect a defensive force, and near 
 'which, on an island, were the greater portion of the prisoners, to aid 
 in a combined attack to be made on the north side by the great body 
 of the trtfops under General Kilpatrick, esteemed among their most 
 enterprising generals. Dahlgren marked his course to the river, un- 
 impeded by any hostile force, only by ravage and incendiarism, but 
 
i '< 
 
 failed wholly to effect a crossing, and sought to cover the timidity 
 that shrank from trying a doubtful ford, by an act of savage ven- 
 geance on his negro guide, who indeed well merited his fate, but not 
 at the hands of the enemy, for his treachery to an indulgent master, 
 and his attempted services to a cruel foe. Baffled in this part of hrs 
 plan, he hastened towards the city on the north side of the river, to 
 unite with Kilpatrick in his proposed attack. Meantime, some hours 
 before his arrival, that attack had been made by the great body of the 
 forces under Kilpatrick, and repulsed by only a few hundred meiron 
 one of the outer lines of the city defences, with such ease as, but for 
 the limited number engaged, would almost have deprived the victory 
 of glory. Kilpatrick retired baffled, to find another opportunity, if 
 not, -to beat a retreat. Later, near night, Dahlgren approached 'on 
 the road from the west, down the river, and encountered, a few miles 
 from the city, the most advanced battalion of our forces, which hap- 
 pened to be of the local reserves, and to be composed of clerks re- 
 cently organized and untried in war. This too was in the open 'field, 
 without defences of any kind. Yet the charge of this select body of 
 the enemy's cavalry, in superior numbers, was speedily repelled, and 
 they driven off in ignominious flight; Their only purpose seemed 
 escape, but as they' hastily pursued after the retreating column of 
 Kilpatrick, they learned that he too had been attacked in the ni^ht* 
 and his forces dispersed. This gallant deed had 'been done by Gen- 
 eral Hampton. He, approaching with about four hundred cavalry, 
 hastily summoned to the aid of the city, had been apprized of the 
 locality of the enemy by Col. Bradley Johnston, who, with a small party 
 of horsemen, had been for many hours courageously scouting round and 
 skirmishing with their forces. Despite his insignificant force Gene- 
 ral Hampton at once charged the enemy in ais camp, and after a 
 brief struggle, routed them, capturing many men and horses. Being 
 too weak to pursue, he was compelled to allow them to escape with 
 impunity, but their only thought afterwards seemed to be of rapid 
 flight, and the next day they 'found a refuge in a supporting force of 
 cavalry, that had been sent up the peninsula to their relief. Startled 
 by the intelligence of this disaster, Dahlgren's men seem, many, to 
 have scattered, finding their way to Kilpatrick's column, while their 
 leader, with some hundreds of his choice men, crossed the Pamunkey, 
 with the hope of evading Hampton, and escaping across the country 
 to Gloucester Point. In King and Queen, they were encountered by 
 some few furloughed cavalry and a local company, hurriedly sum- 
 moned for pursuit. Ambuscacfed by them, Colonel Dahlgren and 
 a few of his men were killed, and the residue of the force under his 
 command speedily surrendered as prisoners. Thus ingloriously and 
 disastrously terminated an expedition, inaugurated with formidable 
 forces, and with high anticipations of great results. But the disgrace 
 of failure was exceeded by the infamy of the base designs of the ex- 
 pedition. On the body of Colonel Dahlgreen, the chosen and spe- 
 cially trusted leader, were found copies of the plan and purposes of 
 the expediton, and the original of his address to his soldiers on start- 
 ing, These disclosed, unequivocally, the 'nefarious purpose, after 
 
liberating their prisoners, to turn them loose, armed and maddened by 
 privation and every evil passion, and by them with the aid, and under 
 the protection of the embodied forces, to sack, burn, and destroy the 
 city, and to kill the President and leading authorities of the Confed- 
 erate Government. The dullest sensibility will sicken and revolt at 
 the horrible brutalities and atrocities that must have attended such a 
 carnival of crime. The perpetration of such deeds by an enfuriated 
 soldiery, under all the fierce impulses of a sanguinary struggle, and 
 in the flush of triumph, is by all nations felt to be a reproach on the 
 character and humanity of man ; but that such horrors should have 
 been deliberately planned and ordered by the authorities of any peo- 
 ple professing to be civilized and Christian, musi inflict an indelible 
 stigma of hypocrisy and infamy. Such fell designs might seem al- 
 most incredible of any other people, but they are supported by irre- 
 fragable evidence in the possession of the papers themselves, with 
 conclusive indications, internal and external, of their authenticity. It 
 is only the culmination of many inferior exhibitions of like malignity 
 and atrpcity. The captives taken in the abortive effort to perpetrate 
 these or Like atrocities, must be admitted to have forfeited all rights 
 to the privileges of civilized warfare, and might well be punished by 
 their intended victims, as the worst of criminals* ; but'it has been 
 thought to comport more with the dignity and self-command of an 
 enlightened Government, as well as to be more consistent with the. 
 humanity, clemency and Christianity that has, throughout this war, 
 characterized our people and authorities, not to mete out bloody re- 
 taliation on the subordinate instruments of an infamous Government, 
 but to consign them for retribution to* the reprobation of outraged 
 Christendom and the lasting stigma of recording history. 
 
 Our armies in the field are believed to be in excellent condition and 
 spirits. Inured to war and practised in habits of endurance, they 
 have passed through the exposure and privations of the winter and 
 incjement spring with remarkable health 4 and content. Animated by 
 an invincible resolution not to be subdued, and a zeal of patriotic self- 
 devotion beyond all praise, they have almost universally re-enlisted 
 for the war, and voluntarily renewed the pledge of their all— their 
 property, their labor and themselves — to the sacred cause of the safety 
 and independence of the country. They have reacted on the people 
 every where, encouraging the bold and shaming the timid to more con- 
 fident reliance on a future of success, and have effectually hushed the 
 whisperings of despondency or disaffection. They were never more 
 confident and reliant on themselves and their commanders, and rela- 
 tively, as is believed, more nearly than heretofore approximating the 
 number of their enemies, they await wdth assurance and ardor the 
 shock of the coming campaign. 
 
 The measures of legislation to secure meritorious officers and 
 repress irregularities and desertion, have operated beneficially on the 
 discipline and morale of the army. Thorough organization may not 
 yet have been effected in forces which had to be suddenly and pro- 
 visionally organized, but steady advance is being made to the attain- 
 ment of the utmost discipline and efficiency. The recent assignment 
 
at the capitol of a supervising commander of all t\e armies, besides 
 promoting the harmony and consistency of military movements, has 
 brought to ajd in the work of organization the experience, known 
 administrative capacity and acknowleged abilities of one of our lead- 
 ing generals, and may be expected to prove productive of salutary 
 results. 
 
 Some deficiencies of organization yet require amendatory legisla- 
 tion. The staff, affording to the quick intelligence of the general his 
 perceptive and administrative faculties, should be constituted of the 
 best material, have the highest attainable experience and qualifications, 
 and be animated by strong incentives to activity and improvement. 
 Unfortunately, in our army, it has not enjoyed the repute, nor, per- 
 haps, inconsequence, commanded the merits desirable for its efficiency. 
 From unavoidable circumstances, probably, the staff has been too much 
 the object of favoritism, through the recommendations on behalf of 
 personal friends, or the refuge of supernumeraries and those by non- 
 election or otherwise thrown out of the line of regular service. They 
 have come to be considered in some measure as attaches to the persons 
 and fortunes of their respective generals, rather than as officers* 
 selected for peculiar qualifications and assigned to special duties. In 
 consequence of this kind of estimation, probably, they have not been 
 allowed rank consistent with their importance, or regulated appro- 
 priately by the standard of merit. These evils it is most desirable to 
 remove, and it is respectfully suggested that the remedy may be found 
 in organizing the respective departments of the staff into separate 
 corps, with due gradations in rank, and in affording the incentive of 
 advance on the exhibition. of qualifications or superior merit. Some 
 increase in the numbers to be attached to the larger commands of the 
 army, as well as the proposed advance in rank, would also seem advis- 
 able. This is, indeed, almost a necessity in relation to the commis- 
 sary and quartermaster branches of the staff service. The law has 
 never made direct provision for the appointment of such officers to 
 organizations larger than brigades. Experience has demonstrated 
 them Xo be essential, not only to the army as a whole, to assure l^r- 
 mony and unity to its movements and due distribution of supplies, but 
 likewise from similar reasons to corps and divisions, which not unfre- 
 quently have to act independently and at wide intervals of distance. 
 In consequence, there has been no alternative but for the general in 
 command, or the department, to withdraw and assign, by detail, from 
 their proper brigades, the quartermasters and commissaries indispen- 
 sable to the larger organizations of the army. Such assignments have 
 rendered oftentimes imperative the appointment of other officers of the 
 same branch of service to the destitute brigades ; and thus indirectly, 
 and with only the rank and legal assignment of brigade officers, have 
 these essential officers of the staff been secured to the divisions, corps 
 and armies in the field. Thi3 ha3 been so well understood, that in one 
 of the acts of Congress, there has been implied sanction by reference 
 to such division and corps officers. Still, action in such cases, without 
 more direct authorization of law, is always embarrassing tPthe de- 
 partment, and not incapable of mischievous effects in the establish- 
 
merit of precedents, and it is earnestly recommended that such appoint- 
 ments be directly sanctioned by law. 
 
 In another particular, respecting the appointment of quartermasters 
 and commissaries, it is desirable the law should be made more explicit 
 The only authority for the appointment of these officers, not for com- 
 mands in the hold, but for the general service of the bureaus, is con- 
 ferred by # the act of the loth day of February, 1862, which provides: 
 
 "That in addition to the number of quartermasters, assistant quar- 
 termasters, commissaries and assistant commissaries, now allowed by 
 law, the President shall have authority to appoint as many of said 
 officers, as shall, in his discretion, be deemed necessary at permanent 
 posts and depots." 
 
 This seems to contemplate that the officers of this class for the gen- 
 eral service are only required at posts and depots, and are expected 
 to be stationary there, but in reality there is an imperative necessity 
 for a greater number to be distributed and actively engaged in all 
 parts of the Confederacy, purchasing, accumulating, and moving sup- 
 plies, and supervising the administration of the extended operations 
 of the commissary and quartermaster's service. As such officers are 
 all remotely connected with, and report to, the respective bureaus 
 stationed at the capital, or more immediately to a superior officer at 
 some post or depot, the above act was, from an early period after Us 
 passage, construed to authorize the appointment of as many quarter* 
 masters and commissaries .as the necessities of the general service 
 demanded, and such has been the continued practice of the department. 
 Doubt may, however, exist whether this be not a latitude of construc- 
 tion, dictated rather by the necessity of the ease than justified by the 
 language and original conception of the act. The law*should explicitly 
 confer a power of appointment co-extensive with the needs of the 
 service, for the exercise of a questionable right of appointment is 
 always to be deprecated. In such matters encroachment is facile and 
 precedents dangerous, and as little latitude to excess as practicable 
 should be left by the law makers. 
 
 On another point, of more importance, ambiguity exists, which 
 should be corrected by more explicit legislation. It is in relation to 
 the appointment and tenure of office of. the general officers of the 
 provisional army. The system pervading the organization of the pro- 
 visional army does not allow the appointment of officers at large 
 assignable to any command appropriate to their grade of rank, but 
 only of the officers of each special organization, on the legal continu- 
 ance of which their commissions are dependent. This is clear as to 
 the company and field officers, as may be illustrated by the fact that 
 such officer of a company or regiment is not a captain or colonel at 
 large of the provisional army, but only the captain or colonel of his 
 particular company or regiment. The disband me nt or termination' of 
 the service of such special organization loses the officers their commis- 
 sions. The same principle of organization seems to have been origi- 
 nally contemplated in the provision by the act of the Provisional Con- 
 gress o#the 6th of March, 186 1, for the appointment of general 
 officers to jbrigades and divisions, and hy analogy, as is presumable. 
 
likewise to the commanders of corps when they were authorized. It 
 would thus have resulted that appointments of general officers could 
 only be made to special brigades, divisions or corps, and that if any 
 general officer was either wounded, incapacitated temporarily, or oth- 
 erwise withdrawn from his special command, no successor could be 
 appointed ; and that on any brigade, division or corps being broken 
 up or radically changed by the diversion or re-distribu^ion of its com- 
 ponent, parts, the general officer would go out of commission. The 
 inconveniences and hardships hence resulting were so great and mani- 
 fest, that although in the first instanpe a disposition was manifested 
 by the Executive to maintain this scheme of appointment and tenure 
 of office, almost of necessity it had to be practically overlooked in the 
 many changes inevitable in the composition of such large organiza- 
 tions, and general -officers came to be assignable from one brigade to 
 another, or to secure an actual commander in the field in cas,e of tem- 
 porary disability of the general officer previously commanding, from 
 capture, wounds, or other temporary cause, were appointed for the 
 destitute organizations. This came to be recognized and acted on aa 
 a necessity by Congress, as well as the Executive, and to obviate the 
 inconveniences or embarrassments which might result from a deficiency 
 in the number of general officers, the act of the 13th of October, 
 1S62, was adopted. This act provides " that the President be, and 
 he is hereby authorized, by and with the advice and consent of the 
 Senate, to appoint twenty general officers in the provisional army, 
 and to assign them to such appropriate duties as he may deem expe- 
 dient." tfnder this law there is no doubt that the Executive may ap- 
 point, to a number not exceeding twenty, general officers of the pro- 
 visional army at large, who may be assignable to any command or 
 duty appropriate to their rank, whose commissions are not contingent 
 on their special commands. As thus a number of supernumerary 
 officers, not exceeding twenty in number, were authorized, it was con- 
 sidered, by construction, to obviate, so long as that number was not 
 exceeded, any obligation of discharging such general officers as were, 
 from any changes of the service or otherwise, thrown out of their spe- 
 cial commando, and to allow even those originally appointed to such 
 special commands, by being considered as among this number ot su- 
 pernumeraries, to be assigned to any other appropriate duties or com- 
 mands. On these points, however, well-founded doubts exist, since the 
 original appointments may perhaps more justly determine whether the 
 general officer be the officer of a special command, dependent on its 
 continuance, or be one of the supernumerary class assignable at will. 
 Such construction, however sustainable by the language and apparent 
 contemplation of the law, would be both unjust and mischievous. 
 Very many of the most capable general' officers in the service, often- 
 times because of their superior merits selected for other more im- 
 portant station's, under the changes of the service are no longer 
 attached to the special commands for which they were appointed, and 
 successors have replaced them, or in the distribution of forces their 
 original organizations have been broken up. Shall they be thrown 
 out of commission and deprived of commands ? Nox would the in- 
 
8 
 
 justice be more than partially remedied by placing them among the 
 supernumerary class, since for that a new. appointment would be 
 necessary, which would deprive them of their original date, and post- 
 pone them to all juniors previously in commission. On the other 
 hand, if those originally appointed as supernumeraries are always to 
 be considered as of that class, and not on assignment to a particular 
 command to hold the relation of a commander originally appointed for 
 it, the number allowed by the law would be at once exceeded, without 
 meeting the deficiencies of the service. An invidious distinction 
 would be established between officers of the same grade in the pro- 
 visional army, founded solely on the accident of appointment, which 
 could not fail to be prolific of Jealousies, rivalries and discontents. 
 
 In view of the whole subject, it is recommended thst all general offi- 
 cers of the provisional army, like the supernumeraries, be made inde- 
 pendent of their commands, and assignable, according to rank, to any 
 appropriate command or duty. 
 
 . A slight extension of the power of appointing chaplains for the 
 army is likewise desirable. There i3, happily, a large religious 
 element and much devotional feeling in our army, which every consid- 
 eration of policy, no less than grateful duty, requires should be con- 
 sulted and fostered. At present, chaplains can only be appointed to 
 posts and regiments. Now, the men of one of the most important 
 branches of service, the artillery, are not regimentally organized, bus 
 formed either in detached companies or arranged in battalions. 
 Hence to them cannot be afforded the guidance or consolations of re- 
 ligious ministry. It is suggested that a chn plain should be allowed 
 for every ten detached companies, or to two battalions, when so sit- 
 uated as to permit to them a common ministration. 
 
 The act of the late Congress for retiring disabled. officers and men 
 has been put in execution, and is working beneficially for the army. 
 Its provisions, however, do not seem to have been commensurate with 
 the claims of equity and gratitude due to the gallant soldiers who 
 have been shattered in health, or maimed by the exposures and 
 •wounds of service. It is confined in its operation only to such as 
 are still on the rolls of the army, and has no respect to those who may 
 have been, by resignation or otherwise, heretofore put out of service. 
 No adequate cause, either in reason or justice, can be perceived for 
 such limitation. Indeed, on the score of merit, the cases of those 
 "who had continued, while incapable of active duty in the field, on sick 
 leave, or in positions of legal duty, rather cumbering than aiding the 
 service, appear less entitled to consideration than those more disin- 
 terested officers who sacrificed their commissions, often their sole 
 'dependence, from honorable sensibility, lest they should block the 
 promotion of the inferior officers on whom their .duties had been cast. 
 Not a few cases of this kind have been known to the Department, in 
 which the acceptance of the resignation, while constrained by the 
 interests of the service, has been done with pain and regret at the "ne- 
 cessity of allowing the self-sacrifice which a sense of honor imposed 
 on the gallant officer. The sole consideration which can exist to pre- 
 vent the extension to all such resigned officers of the privileges 
 
9 
 
 accorded by the act to. those still in service, is the ungracious one of 
 economy, which, in a liberal view, would be as inapplicable from true 
 policy as from a due regard to the sentiment of justice and gratitude 
 . involved. As very many of those disabled or scarred veterans are 
 stiil capable of much service at posts or.other light duties, their re- 
 storation to rank would probably prove much more a gain than a burden 
 to the country, while it would manifest grateful appreciation and 
 secure some partial provision for the honored sufferers of our cam- 
 paigns. . It is, therefore, earnestly recommended that the privileges 
 of the act be extended to embrace those who, from like causes of dis- 
 ability or wounds in service, have heretofore ' resigned or been dis- 
 charged. 
 
 The corps of engineer troops authorized by the late Congress, 
 after not, a few impediments a.nd delays resulting from the reluctance 
 of commanders to part with, by details, their veterans from the line, 
 have at last been organized, in the main of new material, and kave 
 been provided with the requisite trains and implements of service. 
 They have been the object of special interest and % care to the able 
 head of the Engineer bureau, and to his intelligent supervision and 
 persistent efforts are mainly due their efficient organization and com- 
 plete provision. They are composed for the most part of picked men, 
 and embody 'many valuable mechanics and skilled laborers, who, 
 guided by the intelligence and experience of officers selected from 
 their peculiar qualifications and training as engineers, cannot fail to 
 prove eminently advantageous in facilitating the movements and 
 
 • providing the defences of our armies. Their merits and value are 
 already warmly appreciated and acknowledged by the generals who 
 have enjoyed the advantages of their Services, and it is not doubted 
 they will so advance, with increased experience and practice, in esti- 
 
 .*, mation and utility, as to fully vindicate the wisdom of their 
 organization. 
 
 The boards of examination, the military courts and the provisions 
 
 • of the late law allowing officers to be dropped on the recommenda- 
 tions of commanding generals, are operating favorably on the 
 discipline and efficiency of the army. Grave doubts have, however, 
 been expressed by one of our most distinguished geiferals, whether 
 changes by a law of the late session in relation to the military courts 
 have not so closely 'assimilated them, in the necessity of referring 
 charges and having them reviewed in each case by the commanding 
 general, to general courts martial, as to have diminished their effi- 
 ciency in facilitating the dispatch of cases and promptitude of 
 punishment* Modification of the law in these respects is therefore 
 respectfully suggested. Indeed, the mass of business cast on the 
 reviewing authorities— the commanding general, the' department and 
 the President — by these various modes of removing incompetency 
 and punishing offences, cannot be dispatched without neglecting other 
 duties of higher import. The responsibilities, however, entailed are 
 of so grave and delicate a character, and involve so much of personal 
 discretion, that they cannot be discar/lsd or consigned to others. 
 Remedial legislation .in these particulars is urgently demanded. , It 
 
10 
 
 is, with deference, suggested that an officer, to be connected with the 
 Adjutant General's bureau, and to be designated the Judge Advocate 
 General, with the rank at least of colonel, to be aided by assistants, 
 one to be with thexoramanding general of each separate army in tho 
 field, with the rank at least of lieutenant colonel, be authorized, 
 whose duty it shall be to review in the first instance all sentences of 
 the military courts, courts martial and examining boards, 'with the 
 right of appeal within a limited time, where the cases were tried in 
 the field and the sentence deprived the accused of either commission 
 or life. This appeal might be first to the general comraandirg, who 
 might either decide it finally or suspend execution and refer it, 
 through the Judge Advocate General, to the department, to be 
 decided by it, or, at its discretion, submitted to the President. In all 
 cases not arising and tried with an .army in the field, the review 
 might be, in the first instance, by the .Judge Advocate General, sub- 
 ject to the right of like appeal, when life or commission was the for- 
 feiture of the sentence, to the department, which should either decide 
 or submit to the President. Of course, the privilege of interposing 
 by executive clemency, vested in the President, would remain unaf- 
 fected, and application, in appropriate form, might be m*.de . in 
 all cases. By the plan proposed, or some similar ope, all veiiial 
 eases and a large proportion of grave ones would be disposed of, with- 
 out burthcning the commanding general or the department. . So 
 only those of special gravity would come to the department, or claim 
 the action of the President, while the gracious prerogative of mercy 
 would in all be reserved to him. Promptitude and certainty in the* 
 disposition of all cases would be reconciled with due consideration 
 and full revision. 
 
 More important advantage to the service, it is believed, would result 
 from the extension of the power now extrusted to the Executive, of > 
 assigning to commands, with temporary rank, officers of the Confed- 
 erate army, to officers likewise of the provisional army. The power 
 has been both useful and convenient with respect to the former, and 
 the considerations that recommend it apply with daily. increasing force 
 to officers of the provisional army. In the service, the power of 
 promptly rewarding and advancing decided merit presents an invalua- 
 ble incentive to improvement and the display of high qualities. The 
 right, too, of* selecting from all ranks or branches of the service, 
 without being restricted by the gradations, of permanent rank, the 
 officers who may have shown qualities eminently adapting them for 
 special commands, must conduce greatly to the development and com- 
 mand of the highest qualifications of leadership. Surjtrise has not 
 ^infrequently been felt and expressed that, though happily blessed 
 with not a few generals distinguished alike by skill and success, yet 
 with our armies, composed in large degree of such intelligent and cul- 
 tivated men, and characterized by such high courage and proclivities 
 for war, more of conspicuous ability and military genius have not 
 been elicited and displayed. That these rare and inestimable gifts 
 exist latent within our arrme* cannot be doubted, but our system, 
 especially in the provisional army, has not been calculated to foster 
 
11 
 
 or discover them. Officers are in that army made strictly dependent 
 on and confined to limited organizations in special branches of the 
 service, and, whatever their peculiar qualifications, cannot be perma- 
 nently assigned nor be advanced, save by the accident of promotion 
 by seniority, or even on the display of distinguished valor and skill, 
 except in their limited organizations. As the officers of the provis- 
 ional army improve in experience and military attainments, it becomes 
 more and more important that they should not be confined .to special 
 branches of service, but have varied or enlarged spheres of action, so 
 as to be prepared for more general commands, and that their special 
 capacities should be utilized to the greatest advantage. Besides the 
 benefits attained by temporary assignments, grave inconveniences 
 would likewise be avoided. All advancements^ when made, especially 
 with officers not trained by military education or experience antece- 
 dent to the war, must necessarily be in large measure experimental 
 and of doubtful results, and yet they are permanent, however unsuited 
 or inefficient. Unless positively incompetent, the officers must remain 
 in their new commands, scarce equal to their duties and incapable of 
 inspiring confidence or enthusiasm, and yet often by their rank over- 
 shadowing or blocking the way to their superiors in all the endow* 
 ments for command. It would have been far better to have tested, by 
 temporary assignment, the qualities of the officer for the increased 
 rank and command, before he was irretreviably fixed in it. It is often 
 found that an admirable captain proves unequal to the command of a 
 regiment, or an accomplished colonel fails in the wider command of a 
 brigadier, and not unfrequently in even higher rank will the distin- 
 guished subordinate general prove inadeqate to wider or independent 
 command. The officer, especially in an army so improvised and hastily 
 organized, should be tested and approved in each important advance, 
 by command w ; th temporary assignment, before being permanently 
 established in his increased grade. In short, the practice of such 
 assignments would afford the highest incentives; would give enlarged 
 experience and opportunities of display ; would foster and elicit special 
 merits and military genius, and would assure, in permanent com- 
 mands, approved capacities. 
 
 Serious inconvenience has been caused officers . in the field, and 
 much suffering in some instances to officers at posts, by the late law 
 giving, but restricting the former to one ration, and allowing the lit- 
 ter the privilege of purchasing only one It is respectfully recom- 
 mended that the law be so amended as to give officers in the field one 
 ration, and to allow to all the privilege of purchase, subject to such reg- 
 ulations as may be imposed by the department. This cannot possibly 
 result in any injury to the public service, while the object of the late 
 law will be attained, which was obviously to confer a benefit and not 
 work a hardship. 
 
 In this connection, it is appropriate to advert to the peculiar and 
 rather a'nomalous'pnovision of the existing law regulating the pay and 
 allowances of general officers. No difference in these respects is 
 made among them, with the sole exception (under the present excep- 
 tional raters of prices) of trivial effect, that to the general actually 
 
12 
 
 commanding an army in the field there is the added allowance of a hun- 
 dred dollars a month. No distinction otherwise in pay or allowances 
 is made from a brigadier up to a general. As with increase of rank 
 and command, additional expenditures and charges are imposed, the 
 simple consideration of justice would demand correspondingly increased 
 pay and allowances. Equality in such cases is inequity, but, in addi- 
 tion, it is contrary to all experience and practice to have no consid- 
 eration in. compensation to increased dignity and more important ser- 
 yice. A singular illustration of the present inequity of the law is 
 presented by the fact that the veteran general recently assigned to the 
 duty of directing, under the President, all our armies, and required 
 to incur all the expenses of a residence at the capital, is deprived of 
 the additional allowance he would have had as a general commanding 
 an army m the field, and receives no more than the latest brigadier. It is 
 surely only right that pay and allowances should have an appropriate re- 
 lation to rank and extent of duties, entailing, as they must, larger expen- 
 ditures, find it is confidently hoped that our general officers of the more 
 advanced grades will not longer be enforced to the embarrassments, 
 privations and destitution of attendants, by which, under the present 
 compensation allowed and the restrictions, on the subject of rations, 
 in the midst of their anxieties and high responsibilities, they are now 
 annoyed. 
 
 Attention is likewise called to the necessity for some adeq ate pro- 
 vision to defray the expenses of officers travelling under orders. The 
 present allowances aro insufficient to bear the charges, which no econo- 
 my, or even parsimony, can avoid, and the inadequate pa^ of Ae officer 
 little enables him to discharge such expenses. The simplest justice 
 requires that, at least, the necessary expenses incurred in obedience 
 to orders should be defrayed by the Government. 
 
 Some provision should likewise be made to compensate the commis- 
 sioners directed to be appointed by the act suspending, in certain 
 cases, the writ of habeas corpus. The duties are of a delicate and re- 
 sponsible character and- the compensation should ,be liberal enough to 
 engage the services of men of high character and intelligence. 
 • The recent military bills, increasing the range of conscription, 
 have engaged the constant attention and energetic efforts of the able 
 head of the Conscript Bureau in their enforcement. His accompany- 
 ing report, to which attention is invited, will exhibit results so* 
 far attained in recruiting the armies, and, at the same time, explain 
 the embarrassments and impediments which have hindered more rapid 
 execution. These have resulted very much from the necessity of 
 examining the numerous claims presented for exemptions or details 
 under the exceptions and avowed policy cf the law, and from the diffi- 
 culty of commanding tke class and number of assistants and officars 
 for the multifarious duties cast on the bureau. Owing to the de- 
 cadence of the volunteering spirit, a large proportion of those liable 
 to enrollment prefer claims of exemption or detail, which justice, and 
 regard for the aims avowed in the law, require to be investigated and 
 decided. At the same time the omission of Congress to authorize 
 the appointment of officers for enrolling service, and the expectation 
 
13 
 
 that officers to bo retired under the invalid bill would suffice by assign- 
 ment for such duties, have placed the conscription service under 
 something fike a temporary privation. The period of such transitioa 
 from old to new agencies, under the most favorable circumstances, 
 would have been embarrassing and retarding, but the delays have 
 been increased by the necessity of awaiting the process of retiring 
 officers under a cotemporaneous law, which must inevitably be of 
 slow and gradual execution. Even when such- officers have been 
 retired and c?,n be commanded, they are new to their duties, and the 
 retention of their full rank often makes it difficult to adjust them in 
 appropriate relations with the few more experienced officers, whom 
 the laws had authorized to be appointed for the duties of conscription. 
 This will rendily be appreciated, when it is recollected that the highest 
 rank authorized for such service is that of major of a camp of instruc- 
 tion. It is earnestly recommended that power of appointing, with 
 rank varying from a lieutenant to a colonel, tor enrolling and for 
 supervising conscription in each State, a limited number of competent 
 officers, whether from the retired list or those having special training 
 or qualifications for the duties, be conferred. The duties cast on the 
 Conscript Bureau are multifarious and arduous, as well as of prime 
 moment, and it surely is not unreasonable to ask the privilege of 
 selecting and employing fitting instrumentalities for their accomplish- 
 ment. 
 
 Another cause of some retardation in the •execution of the laws of 
 Conscription results, necessarily, from the persistent policy of the 
 Department, to rely for its regular administration on the prestige of 
 law and the support of intelligent public opinion to established 
 authority, rather than on military coercion by sustaining forces. Thus, 
 instead of the forced gathering up, as with a drag-net, of all that 
 come within prescribed ages, there is the accorded privilege of volun- 
 teering ; thereafter enrollment, with due respect to the limitation of 
 the law and the claims for exemption and detail, and then appropriate 
 assignment. As the regular administration of law is more tedious than 
 the summary judgments of arbitrary authority, so this system sacrifices 
 something of expedition to justice. But much greater advantages are, 
 it is believed, secured by the equity and certainty of execution, and 
 by the reconcilement of the people to its severe requirements. Of 
 course in sqme limited districts, where disaffection or desertion may 
 have assembled open recusants to the law, the regular agencies em- 
 ployed have to be sustained by the local or regular forces. While so 
 large a number of conscripts may not, under this system, be at once 
 thrown into the army, yet the continuous return of deserters and strag- 
 glers and the steady recruitment of our armies may be counted on to 
 maintain and enhance their numbers and efficiency. 
 
 In natural connection with the maintenance" of our armies, the 
 thought is attracted to the condition of numbers of our gallant sol- 
 diers, now languishing in the prisons of the enemy. The sympathies, 
 of a grateful country are fixed upon them with tne deepest interest, 
 and the department has but shared and responded to those feelings ia 
 making. all the efforts, consistent with dignity and honor, for their 
 
14 • . . 
 
 relief and release. The protraction of their confinement; has been 
 due solely to the inhuman policy and perfidy of our enemies, whose' 
 Government has omitted and refused to maintain the faith'pledged in 
 the cartel of exchange. With the terms of that agreement our Gov- 
 ernment has been ever ready and earnest to comply, and in a variety 
 of modes, even by an extraordinary mission of the second officer of 
 the Government^ has sought to re-establish its operation or to arrange 
 satisfactory measures of exchange. Its remonstrances and its over- 
 tures have alike proved futile, and the Government of the United 
 States must stand responsible before the world, and in the sight of a 
 just God, for all the privations, sufferings and loss of life, by disease 
 or otherwise, entailed by confinement on the prisoners held on either 
 side, not less on .their own than on ours. The latest, among the 
 shifts and subterfuges adopted by them to evade compliance with their 
 plighted engagements, has been the selection, with the ostensible pur- 
 pose of renewing exchanges, for the mission of treating on the 
 subject with our authorities, of General Butler, the infamous author 
 of so many atrocities in a former command, as to have received the 
 execracion of the world, and to have been banned by the proclamation 
 of the President with the name and character of an outlaw and a 
 felon, to-whom were to be extended none of the privileges of civil- 
 ized warfare, but whose crimes, if he came into our power, were to 
 be visited with the condign punishment of an infamous death. It 
 may well excite surprise fcnd indignation that the Government of the 
 United States should select, for any position of dignity or command/ 
 a man so notoriously stigmatized by the common sentiment of en- 
 lightened nations, but it is not for us to deny their right to appreciate 
 and select whom they may, not inappropriately perhaps, deem a fitting 
 type and representative of their power and characteristics. While 
 we maintain belligerent relations with them, we must, of course, re- 
 cognize the official character of whatever officers they may empower 
 to act within their own limits and within the sphere of their separate 
 action. We must therefore recognize the fact of official position 
 being held by such a character, and this was done cotemporaneously 
 and subsequently to the issue of the President's proclamation, by 
 our generals in the field, when compelled to necessary official relations 
 with the Federal commander at New Orleans ; but when option can 
 be exercised by ourselves, and within the limits of our own territory 
 or within the control of our armies, it is neither to be expected, nor 
 would it comport with the honor or dignity of the Confederacy, that 
 an outlaw and a felon should be received and admitted to the courte- 
 sies or privileges of civilized warfare, or exempted from the liabilities 
 of a criminal. It has held him up to the detestation of Christendom 
 and obtained the answering award of moral condemnation from the 
 tribunal of enlightened public sentiment everywhere. Within its 
 limits, and wherever its power may enable it to execute justice, he 
 has been and will be held an outlaw and a felon. To essay more 
 would be a mere "brutum fulmen " against the criminal, yet entail 
 inconveniences to our own Government and injury to innocent vic- % 
 tims of his malevolence. -In this view, the Government has* sought 
 
15 
 
 to regulate its action. It has not denied the power or position, how- 
 ever un*K>rthily' bestowed by his own Government on General Butler 
 within their limits, but has refused to receive or admit him within 
 ours. If an honest purpose of effecting exchanges, in compliance 
 wit^the cartel, or on equitable terms, be really entertained by the 
 enemy, all the arrangements essential thereto may be readily attained 
 consistently with the position th-us justly held by our Government, 
 while, if the selection was intended merely as a* pretext of avoidance, 
 or for the purpose of gratuitous offence, the hypocrisy of the one 
 design, or the malignity .of the other, will be exposed. Since this 
 relation has been held, some limited exchanges by indirect communi- 
 cation have been effected, and hopes are entertained, especially in 
 view of the increased number of prisoners which recent successes 
 have given us, that the inhuman policy and delusive pretences ot the 
 enemy will be abandoned and the equitable stipulations of the cartel 
 be again acknowledged and executed. Such consummation would 
 thrill with emotions of gratification the whole population of the Con- 
 federacy, and bear relief and consolation to thousands of families 
 throughout the land. For a fuller history and explanation of all the 
 proceedings connected with the subject of exchange, reference is 
 made and special attention invited to the accompanying report of Mr. 
 Ould, our able Commissioner of Exchange. 
 
 Since my late report, the administrative operations of the respective 
 bureaus have been conducted with ability and energy by the zealous 
 officers in charge. They have had many difficulties to encounter 
 from the fluctuating currency ; from deficiency of supplies ; from the 
 withdrawal of workmen, and imperfect means of transportation; yet 
 despite of these ajid other impediments, they have, in all instances, it is 
 believed, not only maintained, but have rather increased, the efficiency 
 and success of their varied working departments. One of their 
 greatest embarrassments has resulted from the law of the late Con- 
 gress, prohibiting, under severe penalties, the employment or contin- 
 uance in employment of any liable to military duty. As the opera- 
 lions of several of the most important bureaus required assistants 
 as well as officers of great activity and energy, rarely to be found 
 except in the prime of life, a large number of the most trusted and 
 essential employees came within the prohibited classes. To dismiss 
 them at once, without breaking up, at the mo3t critical and important 
 period, the operations of the essential bureaus of subsistence, supply, 
 and transportation, was plainly impossible. It became necessary' 
 therefore, that the power of detail, which had been reposed, it is to 
 be presumed, to guard against such, among other contingencies, should 
 be exercised by the department more liberally than would have been 
 otherwise consistent with its views. Every exertion has, however, 
 been made to restrict the details to the narrowest limits consistent 
 with the continuance of efficient service in the bureaus, and they havs 
 not been made without strict scrutiny and assuran^, as far as practi- 
 cable, of their positive necessity. Instructions, t#, have been given 
 and efforts are being made to diminish gradually these details and to 
 supply their places, as fast as substitutes can be found from the disa- 
 
16 
 
 i 
 
 bled -or innrni, or from the reserve classes. The steadfast aim of the 
 department has been, and will continue to be, to pUce in our armies 
 in active service every able-bodied man, liable to bear arms, between 
 the ages of eighteen and forty-five. If such result be attained, it 
 cannot be doubted armies will be maintained as large as the resources 
 of the country would, in consistency with the permanent welfare of 
 the people, justify, and fully adequate to achieve and assure indepen- 
 dence and peace. 
 
 Another embarrassment in tho administrative departments has 
 resulted from the limitation by law to the compensation allowed 
 to detailed men from the armies, who are generally skilled workmen 
 or experts, and withdrawn on that account. Only three dollars a /lay 
 is by the law allowed them, and at existing inordinate rates, it is in 
 the places where their duties compel their presence, simply impossi- 
 ble for them to support life, much less secure reasonable comforts or 
 aid their families. What adds to the grievance is, that to the for- 
 eigners and others working by their sides, three or four times as/ 
 much compensation has to be given to retain them in their employ- 
 ments. Some additional provision for such detailed men must be made, 
 and it is sugested that at least support, quarters and clothing be 
 secured to them. It is impracticable to provide them by any fixed 
 rate of pay, for in our exceptional circumstances the necessary 
 amount would vary largely in different localities and in brief inter- 
 vals of time. In this connection, too, it is not inappropriate again to 
 invoke earnestly consideration to the wholly inadequate compensation 
 afforded to the clerks and employees of the department. The finan- 
 cial measures of the late Congress, it is hoped, will, in their full 
 development, compel reduction of inflated prices, but as yet they 
 have been inoperative to afford any relief. Without means other 
 than their salaries it is impossible for the clerks to obtain bare sub- 
 sistence. They are fai hful and laboriuos officers, and every conside- 
 ration of justice and policy demands that they should receive at 
 least a fair support. With the fluctuations of prices, this cannot 
 easily be secured by a moderate compensation in currency Provi- ■ 
 sion should be made to supply them with ratio'ns and clothing, or a 
 part of the funds appropriated for their pay being employed in tho 
 purchase and export of cotton, they should receive a limited propor- 
 tion, say a third or fourth, of their salaries in sterling exchange. 
 
 The supply departments are experiencing increased difficulties from 
 the scarcity existing in considerable portions of the Confederacy, and 
 from the reluctance in all to sell, under the expectation of advancing 
 prices. The great resource is, and it is feared will have for somo 
 time at least to be, impressment. While it is certainly most desira- 
 ble this mode of supply should be dispensed with, or at least made as 
 equitable and regular as practicable, yet facility and rapidity of exe- 
 cution are indispensable. Some features of the late law^ regulating 
 impressments, it is.jmggested, with deference, retard and obstruct its 
 operation, and miglt be modified to the great convenience of the 
 Government and without serious prejudice to the citizen. The re- 
 quirements, too, of local appraisements, without appeal to a general 
 
17 
 
 arbiter, seems a very defective mode of securing only just compensa- 
 tion, and is rather calculated to stimulate grasping desires and to 
 foment the discontents which always spring from inequality and 
 diversity of prices. Such appraisements, "it is submitted, do not 
 afford a fair criterion of just compensation under the«exceptional cir- 
 cumstances of the Confederacy. . A. much juster rule would be the 
 cos"t of production with a fair profit thereon, to be determined by 
 selected officers of undoubted probity and intelligence Recurrence 
 to such system of general regulation, rather than to the fluctuating 
 estimates of local appraisers, is earner -m mended. Some posi- 
 
 tive provisions and some regular process of enforcement against citi- 
 zens* resisting or evading impressments, are also desirable, as the law 
 is now almost without the sanction of a pen- a mode of legal 
 
 execution. Military coercion is ever to be deprecated as a depend- 
 ence for the admin at ration of law. 
 
 The expediency of the tithe tax .has been tuiiv vindicated, as it has 
 proved a most valuable resource for the subsistence of the armies and 
 the most acceptable form of imposition on the producers. It should 
 certainly be continued, and. in my judgment, on some leading articles 
 o£ subsistence, such aa meat, wheat, rice, and products of the su- 
 gar cane, should be increased. Some dek e arisen in its col- 
 lection from the lack of adequate transportation, and 'from the want 
 of harmony between the assessors and collectors. As the supervis- 
 ion of both classes of officers, is now reposed in the same department, 
 more unity of action may hereafter be expected. In the amendments' 
 made to the law, however, at the last session, too limited a time has, 
 according to the judgment and experience of the officers charged with its* 
 execution, been alio we'd for collection before the privilege of commuta- 
 tion. That period is limited to five months only, within which all collec- 
 tions must be completed. With the means of transport and storage 
 possessed, this is physically impracticable throughout the whole Con- 
 federacy. An extension of the period to at least eight months is 
 therefore recommended.' 
 
 Under the legislation of the late Congress, efficient regulations 
 have been adopted to make our great staples more available for pro- 
 viding funds and sustaining our credit abroad, by exportation. Ade- 
 quate precautions have, likewise, been taken to assure, on the export 
 of these leading articles of commerce, when taken out of the Con- 
 federacy for private gain, fair returns of useful supplies for the Gov- 
 ernment and people. The period is yet too brief to allow full real- 
 ization of the benefits to be expected from this policy, but enough is 
 shown to vindicate its wisdom, and call for its maintenance. It would 
 be at once a great triumph over our enemies, and not an unprofitable 
 lesson to neutral nations, that the malice of the former as exhibited 
 in their futile efforts, by a pretended blockade, to cut off the com- 
 merce of the Confederacy, and the stolid indifference of the latter to 
 their violation of the law of nations and recent treaty stipulations, 
 should, by the enhancement of prices consequently falling on con- 
 sumers abroad, and especially their own people, prove the effective 
 means of sustaining our credit and securing adequate supplies to the 
 
IB 
 
 Confederacy. This is perfectly practicable by a sufficient increase in 
 the number of vessels, and by greater attention to affording facilities 
 for evading the blockade, and rendering more directly the aid ar»d 
 countenance of the Government to the provision of the staples at the 
 ports, and to the enlistment of private enterprise and capital in the 
 trade. • 
 
 The universal appreciation of the value of these great staples sug- 
 gests the inquiry whether, as they cannot be exported at an approach 
 to their production, they may not be employed within the Confede- 
 racy to maintain our internal, as abroad they will our external, credit.. 
 This subject belongs, perhaps, more appropriately to another depart- 
 ment .of the administration, from whose more matured thought, and 
 larger experience, more reliable counsels may be obtained ; but*the 
 great interest of this department in utilizing all means of supply and 
 securing acceptable securities for purchasing may excuse the sugges- 
 tion. It is believed a plan might be devised by which the quantities 
 of these great staples, which could .be readily obtained for the Gov- 
 ernment, by the tithe and exaction of the tax on them, as on gold in 
 kind, rather than value, might be so disposed of as to provide a tempting 
 mode of investment to capitalists, whether at home or abroad, and thus 
 assure large available means for meeting the disbursements of the 
 war, without the further issue of a redundent currency. 
 
 Of all the difficulties encountered by the administrative bureaus, 
 perhaps the greatest has been the deficiency in transportation. *With 
 the coasting trade cut off, and the command by the e"nemy, through 
 their naval superiority, of all our great rivers, reliance for internal 
 trade and communication has been necessarily on the railroads. 
 'Jhese were never designed, nor provided with means, for the task 
 now incumbent on them. They have, besides, suffered much from 
 inability to command the supplies of iron, implements and machinery, 
 they habiti ally imported, and from many sacrifices and losses in the 
 war. The -ieficiency of skilled labor has also been a great embar- 
 rassment, even in requisite repairs. It is impossible they can be 
 maintained in efficiency, or that even the leading lines can be kept 
 up, without the direct aid and interposition of the Government. Some 
 of the shorter and least important roads must* be sacrificed, and the 
 iron and machinery taken for the maintenance of the lending lines, 
 and for the construction of son e essential and less exposed interior 
 links of connection. They will atae have to be supplied with sterling 
 funds, or means of exporting .our staples to command them, and facil- 
 ities of purchasing and importing necessary supplies of machinery 
 and the like. Th« Government will have to assist, by the construction 
 of cars and locomotives, and to give facilities for procuring labor, 
 and especially skilled labor, oftentimes even by details from the army, 
 in which, during the first stagnation of business attendant on the war, 
 a very large proportion of the machinists and mechanics entered. It is 
 recommended, that by appropriate legislation, aids, in these various 
 modes, he authorized. In return for such privileges, full command 
 over all the resources and means of transport possessed by the roads, 
 whenever needed for the requirements of the Government, should be 
 
19 
 
 established. It may be, indeed is, beliered now to be absolutely 
 essential for the support of leading armies, that on certain lines 
 all the means of transport that can be commanded should be ex- 
 acted. The roads should be run under unity of management, without 
 reference to their loeal limits or separate schedules, and with the 
 rolling stock possessed by all, or which can be # drawn from other 
 sources. There should be the full power of commanding all this, and 
 at the same time of requiring the continued service, as far as needed,, 
 of all officers and employees of the road ; so that there should not be 
 even temporary, which might be fatal, delay or embarrassment in con- 
 ducting the transportation. There should be also the power of at 
 once taking possession of and removing the iron on roads which must 
 be sacrificed to maintain or construct others more essential, leaving 
 the just compensation and all other questions of possible litigation to 
 be settled by subsequent equitable ^and satisfactory processes of in- 
 vestigation and decision. The delays incident to previous settlement, 
 often by vexed litigation, are fatal to the imperative uses which de- 
 mand the sacrifice, and if permitted, local and private interests will 
 almost invariably invite them. No reflection is intended on the zeal 
 or patriotism of the officers or members of these railroad companies. 
 On the contrary*, it is gratefully acknowledged that they have gen- 
 erally manifested a most commendable disposition to meet the require- 
 ments of the Government, and to make even large sacrifices for the 
 common cause. Still, the measure of sacrifice, which the need de- 
 mands, is dimmed to their perception by special interests, and is not 
 unfrequently too great to be acquiesced in without the exhaustion of 
 all means of procrastination and prevention. Th? boards of%directors, 
 too, where they would individually make the required sacrifice, fjeel 
 constrained, by conscientious regard for their representative trust, to 
 interpose all. the obstruction and delays in their power. As the 
 immediate possession and use of the iron in such cases is a pressing 
 necessity,. no alternative appears to exist but to give the power of 
 seizure in the first instance, with the fullest precaution for after 
 liberal settlement; and it is earnestly recommended this be 
 done 
 
 The distance and difficulties of communication cause imperfect 
 knowledge of the transactions in the trans- Mississippi department since 
 my last report, yet operations there are in the main believed to have 
 been scarcely less encouraging and successful than on the eastern 
 side of the river. . It is true, that under the pressure of superior 
 numbers, from strategic considerations mainly, our forces retired from 
 Little Rock, and have allowed the enemy to advance to considerable 
 distances, in the interior of Arkansas; but in such movements they 
 expose themselves to imminent hazards, and will probably have only 
 been lured to more complete destruction. Similar tactics, in the war 
 of our revolution, achieved the decisive triumphs of Saratoga and 
 Yorktown ; and the remembrance 'of these glorious results should 
 enable the people overrun, to endure the many sacrifices such policy 
 of withdrawal must entail. 
 
 In Texas and Louisiana, the invasions of the past winter have either 
 
20 
 
 accomplished ridiculously small results, in comparison with the for- 
 midable commands employed, or have been successfully repelled. In 
 western Louisiana especially, the various advances of the enemy into 
 the interior have met from our forces, under the skillful leadership of 
 General Taylor, repeated and signal discomfitures. Of the most for- 
 midable of their invasions, attempted apparently for the subjugatiou 
 of the whole, country I .-..■ several converging column? of their land 
 forces, aided by a formidable fleet of gun-boats on the river, we are 
 as yet imperfectly acquainted with results, as the wise policy of our 
 able commandt-r has withdrawn the scene of conflict to the far inte- 
 rior. We have only meagre and glozing accounts through the jour- 
 nals of the enemy, yet they suffice to show reiterated disasters sus- 
 tained, and aiford grounds for sanguine hope to us that they have 
 met the retribution of fearful losses and may have been entirely cap- 
 tured or destroyed. Another San Jacinto may signalize the annals of 
 the southwest, and illustrate the fearful risk to an invading army of 
 pressing, with the purpose of subjugation, to the interior defences of 
 a free and gallant people. 
 
 The abundant productions of this fertile region have fortunately 
 precluded all deficiencies of supplies for subsistence to either the 
 armies or the people. In this respect they are fully provided. Then- 
 needs are rather of munitions arid manufactured stores. Even, before 
 the interruption of communications with the east, efficient means had 
 been adopted for the establishment of founderies, arsenals and manu- 
 facturing establishments of various kinds, and for the development of 
 the mineral and other internal resources of the country. These 
 efforts have been since pressed with increased vigor and with most 
 creditable success. No long time will elapse before, in all material 
 respects, the trans-Mississippi department will be made self-sustaining 
 for war. Meantime, most liberal contracts and all other practicable 
 measures have been adopted to afford them requisite supplies by impor- 
 tation of arms, munitions and quartermaster's stores. These have 
 been, at least, partially successful, and have met the most pressing, 
 wants. The deficiency most to be deplored is of a full supply of arms, 
 and this has resulted from no want of foresight or exertion on the. 
 part of the Government, but from casual miscarriages and unexpected 
 and most unjustifiable seizures of large cargoes by neutral powers. 
 The subsequent rendition of them, with acknowledgment of error, at 
 distant points, by no means remedied the mischiefs the injustice had 
 inflicted. Notwithstanding the frustration in this way of well con- 
 certed arrangements for supplies of arms and munitions, others have 
 been rewarded with success, and measures, now in train of execution, 
 it is confidently hoped, will soon remove existing deficiencies. It is 
 not improbable this has been already more speedily and effectively 
 accomplished by the triumph of our arms and the capture of the 
 abundant stores of the enemy. It is certainly mortifying to think 
 that brave men are kept from the field, when their all is staked, by the 
 want of arms, yet if they can be supplied by the spoils of victory, 
 they will find, in their equipment, at once encouragement and an inspi- 
 ration of generous emulation to gallant achievements. .They will 
 • 
 
11 
 
 » 
 know, too, the value of their arms, and how they should be both 
 guarded and used. 
 
 The legislation of the late Congress for the trans-Mississippi de 
 partment .was both liberal and provident. Provision was made for the 
 peculiar needs incident to its comparative isolation from the super- 
 vision of the central Government and all the agencies of a partially 
 independent Government were authorized. In the same spirit has 
 been the action of the Executive. Added rank and dignity have been 
 bestowed on the able" commander and administrator at its head, and to 
 him have been entrusted the full measure of executive powers, which, 
 under our constitutional system, could be exercised by other than the 
 President, Thus, full confidence has been manifested by both branches 
 of the Government in his fidelity, capacity and judgment, and all the 
 incentives to effort, and all the means of accomplishment which could 
 be commanded, have been imparted. It is not doubted such unusual 
 trusts are merited and will be justified in their exercise, and that con- 
 tinning confidence and sanction to his administration of affairs will be 
 assured by its happy results. Accounts concur in representing him 
 as enjoying likewise the esteem and confidence of the people of the 
 department. They, notwithstanding the sacrifices and losses to which 
 they have necessarily been subjected, are believed to be resolute, 
 hopeful and reliant both on themselves and their leader.-. Portions 
 of their country may be overrun or temporarily occupied by the hosts 
 of their unscrupulous foes, but they know that with the resources in 
 men and means and the advantages for defence of their extensive 
 department, employed with energy and skill, the attempt to subdue a 
 people as brave and determined as themselves, is one of folly and 
 madness. They endure with fortitude their temporary ills, await with 
 patience the hour of approaching retribution, and anticipate, with 
 confidence, the overthrow of their hateful enemies and their final dis- 
 graceful expulsion or destruction. In view of the means at command, 
 of the invincible spirit of the people, the skill of their leaders, and the 
 approved prowess .of their soldiers, the trans-Mississippi department 
 may be regarded as no less than the States of the Confederacy east, 
 prepared, against the utmost efforts of their' malignant enemies, for 
 successful defence, and assured of ultimate triumph. 
 
 Attention is invited to the accompanying report of the Commis- 
 sioner of Indian Affairs. Credit is due to that officer for the dangers 
 and privation? he has endured in twice visiting the distant abodes of 
 the Indian tribes. His presence and influence among them have 
 proved salutary in affording encouragement and maintaining fidelity. 
 It is important they should be dealt with in a «pirit of consideration 
 *nd liberality. They should not suffer from the changes which have 
 been made in our financial system, the necessity and wisdom of which 
 they cannot be 'expected to have foreseen or now to understand. The 
 recommendation, therefore, by the Commissioner of timely legisla- 
 tion to authorize substitution of the new currency for the old, without 
 loss to them, is approved and seconded. The great body of the In- 
 dians, notwithstanding their losses, are attached to the Confederacy 
 and confident in its fortunes, and, with reasonable consideration for 
 
22 
 
 their peculiar wants an r d feelings, may easily be retained in amity 
 and fidelity. 
 
 We have now entered on the fourth year of the war ; and the end 
 is not yet. Origin og and perfidy oj" our enemies, it 
 
 is continued through their rage and hate. We have asked and s^k 
 
 m They profess to enforce a de- 
 iquest and extermination. 
 Prost: i-.ermg their liberties, 
 
 they are It ours. A :u of momentoifs 
 
 events is : itaTid prepared and 
 
 resolute. Nor ha^ d unworthy exponents 
 
 of their indoti icing patriotism. The 
 
 measures of ■ ''■ sred as a combined system, are 
 
 characterized d enlarged, statesmanship. They 
 
 concentrate the em • d resources and command the men. and 
 
 property of th< cy in larger measure than have ever been 
 
 done by any Grovi ' * i;i ' whole male population capable 
 
 of arms, from seventeen to fiftj either marshaled to the 
 
 field or -organized i ," ; rr > be summoned. One-third of 
 
 the cu ■•' the Confederacy has been annulled, and taxation of 
 
 unprecedented amount hes been exacted from all values. One-tenth 
 of productions in kind has been claimed without pay, and, besides, 
 the residue and ail property has been subjected to seizure and con- 
 version for public use at moderate rates of just compensation. The 
 railroads, the great means of internal trade and communication, are 
 made primarily subservient to the necessities of Government. Even 
 the great writ of personal-liberty is suspended in eases requisite to 
 preclude evasion of military. service, or to repress uprisings of disaf- 
 fection or disloyalty. In short, by their representatives, the people, 
 not reluctantly', but eagerly and fearful rather of shortcoming than 
 excess, have, through regular constitutional action, commanded for 
 their country and the labor, properly and live-, of ail • In 
 
 the consciousness of such devotion and sacrifice to* a righteous cause, 
 they may well fee] reliant and indomitable, and await with. constancy 
 and faith the shock of com ihg battle. They have, 1 ch to en- 
 
 courage and every incentive to nerve and -animate Our enemies 
 exhibit unmistakable indi< of. despondency,' of approaching 
 
 bankruptcy and internal convulsion Tin y w ring the year^ 
 
 in the throes of intense political struggle, distracted beyond all pre- 
 cedent by the jars and strifes of acritnonious factions, contending for 
 tke prize of almosl ic power and madly extravaj pendi^ 
 
 lure. To a large proportion of their peo] 'hem the 
 
 wisest and the best, the vi; are'the 'authors and prose- 
 
 cutors of the war are scarce less odious .than to ou • d with 
 
 nearly as much reason, since its triumph is the practical subversion 
 of their constitution and lafgs, and the precursor of speedy destruc- 
 tion to their, as surely as to our, liberties. If any redemption remains 
 to the people of the United States from- the wickedness ami madness 
 that have urged them to this war, it can only be by recurrence to the 
 
pjincipl of the States and to the 
 
 CO U: 
 
 . A'll • • . too, ;ire a,uap:4iou« 
 
 * no - * r - . - ■ r us from ever* 
 
 quarter cf the . of the first pages if 
 
 tn * s re ] beard from the 
 
 remote of the . swollen by the 
 
 acclaim from Paduc! alminated in the 
 
 shouts of c ^nts of a young 
 
 and rising . ■ efTNortb oil. Many minor 
 
 'successes contribute to justify grateful exultation^ but all should fail 
 to excite presumption, and only anima.^ to greater effort and to hum- 
 bler trust in the blessing of He:v inns 
 
 The greatest incentive yet remains. Our only outlet to existence 
 and safety is through the portals of victory. We have burned the shim 
 
 ' behind u-\ It ibill not do to fail. Subjected to the "hate and brutality 
 of our malignant foes, to what depths of penury, misery and base- 1 
 ness should we not be crushed ? Our Confederacy would be extinct ; 
 our States broken up; our institutions, social and industrial, up- 
 rooted, and our people stripped of property, liberty and all rights, 
 now and in coming generations, the thralls of Yankees and their 
 aliied hordes of miscreant foreigners, held to the tasks of drud^erv 
 and infamy by the insolent ministry of our slaves in arms. No con- 
 quered people would have ever under such mi - ■ -. inr have 
 been. steeped in such bitterness and infamy. For this end, shall we 
 nave made such priceless sacrifices of blood and tie irid d6ne 
 and dared as our army and people have in this war ? Shall the hosts 
 of pur gallant dead- hie army of martyrs'* — in vain have at- 
 tested with their lives tfoe Sacredness and truth of their country's 
 cause I Are they to live in memory nor : o> amid the halo of 
 fame for the inspiration and reverence of future generations, but 
 branded for warning and execration, with the lasting . stigma of a 
 rebel's name and a traitor's- fate ? Are the thousands and tens of 
 thousands of the invalided, the scarred and maimed heroes of this 
 war, instead of being followed tl ith the homage of honor 
 and gratitude, to drag out a wretched existence, the conspicuous ob- 
 jects of detestation, obloquy and contempt? Shall we and ours, from 
 the honored sire and beloved mother to the maiden in her purity, or 
 the prattling innocent, with all our homes and means, be the victims 
 or prey of Yankee insolence, cupidity and hate ?. We cannot, in 
 sober verity,-aff<Jrd to be conquered. Such existence offers no boon 
 to tempt nor^ consolation to reconcile. In contrast, on the other 
 hand, through'the" vista of mo distant time, see the Confederacy of 
 our choice established in power and dignity; pur States in the* be- 
 nignant exercise of acknowledged sovereignty; the- courage and 
 virtues of our people tested and approved ; our institutions, social 
 and industrial, vindicated and freed from the malignant intermeddling 
 of fanatic or insidious enemies, confirmed on the basis that so happily 
 reconciles capital with labor, and harmonizes dependence with protec- 
 tion, and. the desolated homes and ravaged fields of our favored land 
 
restore'! and flourishing under the benignant -smiles of p»a:e and 
 plenty. Let our people *' look on this picture, and then on that.* 
 and choose. For it is a mutter only of choice and the. will to fulfill 
 it. We hate the numbers, the resources and the means adequate to 
 our certain redemption and triumph, if only they he- commanded, 
 concentrated and wielded with energy and unity by the will of a 
 people unalterably fixed never to succumb, but to prefer release in the 
 "•rave and refuge with ' I to the horrors and infamy of lasting 
 slavery. We have only to act in this spirit, and humbly confiding 
 in the favor of Heaven, we may be assured no distant day will wit- 
 ness the confusion and discomfit;. re of our enemies and the permanent 
 attainment to us and our posterity, through the achievements of vic- 
 tory, of peace, freedom, and independence. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 JAMTS A. SJl&DOK, 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 
REPORT FROM CONSCRIPTION- BUREAU. 
 
 Bureau op Conscription* Richmond, April 30, 1864. 
 
 Hon. James A. Skdocn, 
 
 Secretary of War : \ 
 
 Sir : I have the honor to submit my report concerning the opera- 
 tions of the Conscription service, from the 1st of January to the 1st 
 of April, 18G4. This report indicates but a very meagre portion of 
 the work which has been performed. The results are the scanty 
 gleanings from an almost unlimited and nearly exhausted field of 
 labor, every inch of which has to be searched, analyzed, and classified 
 in every relation to the great problem of recruiting and maintaining 
 the armies. 
 
 No attribute which pertains to society or civil economy but has 
 been subjected to the scrutiny and action of this bureau and its 
 agencies. With the incompetent means under its control, all has been 
 done which could be effected by zeal and diligence. The results indi- 
 cate this grave consideration for the Government — chat fresh material 
 for the armies can no longer be estimated as an element of future 
 calculation for their increase ; and that necessity demands Hie inven- 
 tion of devices for keeping in the ranks the men now borne on the 
 rolls. The stern revocation of all details ; an appeal to the pat- 
 riotism of the States claiming large numbers of able-bodied men, and 
 the accretions by age, are now almost the only unexhausted sources 
 of supply. For conscription from the general population, the func- 
 tions of this bureau may cease with the termination of the year 
 1861. 
 
 Papers A, B, C, D, are the reports of the officers of this bureau 
 relative to matters with which they are respectively charged, and ex- 
 hibiting statements and views which I deem worthy of your conside- 
 ration. 
 
 Papers E, F, G, II, I, J, K, L, M, and N, hereto attached, exhibit 
 the various operations of the Conscription service, in the diverse 
 functions allotted to it. From these, however, are excluded an im- 
 mense mass of work which it is not deemed necessary to report ; 
 because it is of a character not demanding record in this bureau,. 
 
 The returns furnished are unavoidably incomplete, and I respect- 
 fully refer to the latter portion of this report for the explanation. 
 
 Papers and P exhibit very valuable reports from Colonel Blake, 
 the Registrar of this Bureau, in regard to the military capabilities of 
 Georgia and Virginia. Within a few days I expect to receive from 
 
the same intelligent and zealous officer similar reports on North Caro- 
 lina, South. Carolina, and Alabama. 
 
 Paper Q is a list of the enrolling officers whose commissions have 
 been vacated. . The case is fully stated below. 
 
 These various exhibits show that much good work has been done, 
 although the numbers recorded in this bureau do not manifest a large 
 increase to. the array. A rigid and universal inspection, not only of 
 company rolls, but personal, and also pay-rolls, will prove that more 
 'men have been received into the service — irregularly — since the 1st 
 of January, than have gone through the Conscription authorities. 
 
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SUM$ 
 
 From the reports qow in this bureau, it appears that tor the months 
 of December, January, February a 
 
 7,513 conscripts were assigned to tJhq army, 
 2,325 volunteers were assigned to the army, 
 8,306 deserters were returned to the army, 
 
 IS, 144 increase to the army. 
 
 The reports of the number of persoiiB exempted by law and orders 
 of the*\Var Department are not complete. The number so reported 
 in North Carolina has not been fully reported ; and the commandant 
 has been directed to furnish this information. 
 
 In .Alabama and Mississippi, the number exempt by law and orders, 
 up to -1st January, is given, but not the number exempt by boards of 
 examination. 
 
 The total number of persons detailed-in Alabama and Mississippi 
 is not known, as the reports of the number detailed is up to the 1st 
 January, 1864. 
 
 Taking the number detailed in those States, at that time, there 
 are 13,142 conscripts detailed. # 
 
 Upon the same reports, exclusive of NorttuCarolina, there arc 
 
 20,435 conscripts exempted by law and Orders, 
 5,847 conscripts exempted by boards of examination. 
 
 The commandants of Alabama and Mississippi have been written 
 to, to furnish a complete report of the operations o^ conscription in 
 those States ; and as soon as their reports are received, they, will be 
 forwarded. It is a matter of much difficulty to obtain accurate re- 
 ports from these States, owing to the confusion of the service, and to 
 the very meagre reports (in •some instances none) from no records 
 having been kept. All these derails and exemptions are now re- 
 voked, and new ones will have to be issued under the late act of Con- 
 gress, which went into operation on the 1st of April, 1864. 
 
 The results of conscription, since the 1st of January, have not 
 been equal to the anticipations of the country, and perhaps not quite 
 up to. the calculations of this bureau. 
 
 I. The act of Congress*entitlcd " An act to put an end to the ex- 
 emption from military service of those who have heretofore furnished 
 substitutes," (approved January 5, 1864,) has not furnished the num- 
 ber of men which it was supposed would bts brought into the service 
 by that law. It has been Found that a number of persons hav- 
 ing substitutes, come within the classes exempted < by the act 
 of February 17, J 86 4; and other large numbers belong to those 
 classes who are the subjects of detail for the industrial productions. 
 
53 
 
 Wealthy farmers, enterprising manufacturers and mechanics, were the 
 persons chiefly furnishing substitutes. Besides these, many patriotic 
 persons of feeble health, but within the conditions of the regulations, 
 sent in substitutes, and on being enrolled, have been detailed for 
 service out of the field. The bureau, under your instruction, has 
 been very cautious in allowing such details. I regret to state that 
 there seems to have been a general effort to keep principals of substi- 
 tutes out of the army. 
 
 It is proper to add that the calculation of enrolling officers, is, that 
 a larger number of this class have gone into the army without report- 
 ing to the enrolling officers than have been passed by them through 
 the camps. The result of the law, therefore, has been better than 
 is exhibited by the records of this bureau. 
 
 II. It has been found exceedingly difficult to interpret the "act to 
 organize forces to serve during the war," so as to adapt its provis- 
 ions to just administration under the agencies provided for conscrip- 
 tion. The purpose of the law seems to be, that while all men are 
 made liable to military service, the productive industry must be main- 
 tained as necessary to the public defence. Under the classes of ex- 
 emptions, there are but a limited number engaged in production. Of 
 persons " owning fifteen able-bodied hands," a very small minority 
 produce more than they consume — rarely having a surplus of grain 
 or meat to sell — and a large majority of such persons between the 
 ages of seventeen and fifty, are already in the service. The surplus 
 producers — those on whom the country and the army must depend 
 for supplies — are the classes having much less than " fifteen hands.' ' 
 and down to single laborers on farms. As numerous an this class is, 
 it has already been drained of men to a point which requires great 
 caution in making further abstractions. Sly opinion is, that the ag- 
 riculture of the country cannot safely spare more than a very small 
 additional draft. I am not Bare that the public defence would not be 
 strengthened instead of weakened by adding to the labor thus em- 
 employed. 
 
 III. In manufactures and mechanical arts, the like necessities seem 
 to exist. Perhaps no civilized country was ever so barren of manu- 
 factures and mechanical, arts as the States of the Confederacy at the 
 beginning of the war ; and certainly no country, since the blockade 
 was established, has needed them more. >"'■ «> one article of clothing, 
 or mechanical production was supplied within these States; so that, 
 under the blockade, it has become an absolute necessity, even for the 
 meagre supply now existing, that every manufacturer and mechanic 
 should be kept to his art. As the stock which existed at the begin- 
 ning of war approaches absolute exhaustion, this necessity of course 
 increases. Prudence requires great caution in further diminishing 
 this class. The army and the people must be fed and clothed ; and 
 the munitions of war must be furnished ; and the persons engaged in 
 these purposes are already too few for the ends. It is in the class of 
 non-producers that the enrolling officer must chiefly look for his re- 
 cruits to the army ; and it is in determining who these non-producers 
 %re, that the conscript authorities are engaged in'hourly contest with 
 
 4 
 
34 
 
 every authority, every prejudice, every interest, and every fear, 
 which exists in the Confederacy. Governors and judges demand some, 
 local convenience others ; pecuniary or other interests, and every oc- 
 cupation are magnified into public necessities. Towns and cities de- 
 mand able-bodied men for police ; banks and brokers for clerks ; 
 charitable institutions for wardens ; public functionaries for subalterns j 
 and all on the plea that such are necessary for the public good. There 
 is one universal effort to keep men from the field. Since I took 
 charge of this bureau, no authority, association, or individual has of- 
 fered one man to the military service. Against all this, the conscription 
 authorities are daily contending. The results evince that the officers 
 have been doing their duty. 
 
 IV. I regret that I am compelled to report that in no department 
 of Government has the law been rigidly complied with in the matter 
 of details. The plea of public necessity has been so strenuously 
 urged, and so distinctly proved, that continuations have been allowed 
 beyond the contemplation of law. I respectfully recommend that, as 
 soon as the reserves are organized, the law be rigidly enforced. 
 
 V. The functions of conscription are now narrowed down to a sys- 
 tem of delicate gleaning from the population of the country, involving 
 the most laborious, patient, cautious and intelligent investigation into 
 the relations of every man to the public defence. There are but few 
 left whose appropriate duties in those relations have not been defined, 
 and it thence becomes the province of the conscription agents to- 
 weigh and determine whether those relations may not be disturbed 
 for the purpose of sending more men into the field, and distributing 
 them for the general service. 
 
 The efficiency of the bureau in these investigations has been seri- 
 ously impaired by the failure to retain in office about seventy officers, 
 selected by you for their^peculiar fitness for, and accurate training in, 
 these duties. 
 
 These officers (paper (i Q") were selected by you with great care 
 and accurate discrimination, and appointed or assigned to enrolling 
 service. With few exceptions, all other officers in that service were 
 assigned by accident, or by reason of unfitness for other duties ; and 
 from this cause, w T hen I came to the bureau, I found the service con- 
 fused and languid, and the administration of the conscript laws neces- 
 sarily unsatisfactory. Chiefly by the zealous and intelligent aid of 
 these seventy officers, thus selected, the system was organized, and 
 the administration became fruitful not only in men for the field, but 
 in managing the external police of the armies, and also in furnishing 
 a large amount of information on which to base the military policy 
 of the country. These officers were the chiefs who controlled, in- 
 formed, and energized the ungenial agencies filtered into the con- 
 script from the debris of the general service. They were the practised 
 and trained soldiers and judges on whom I relied to sustain me in 
 my hard duty of wringing from the wasted population the scanty 
 remnant of men, and, at the same time, to preserve, as far as our 
 military need would permit, the enfeebled productive energies of the 
 country. These officers have been discharged by the operation of a f 
 
law which 'iocs not provide adequate compensation to the public 
 service. 
 
 In the States of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, 
 these officers were the principal agents of conscription, and in these 
 States conscription has been eminently successful. In Georgia, Ala- 
 bama, Mississippi and Florida the officers were altogether casual, and 
 from these States come all the complaints of the evils and failures of 
 conscription. 
 
 The invalid- corps bill has furnished no substitutes for these officers, 
 and I have no authority to ask or receive officers from any other 
 source, except such as may be sent by the casualties of the field, or 
 on declarations of incompetence. I cannot too strongly express my 
 dismay at the almost certain prospect of the utter failure of the con- 
 scription service, during the coming vital campaign, if it is made 
 dependent on the accidental officfrs who are fitfully and irregularly 
 assigned to its duties. On the 1st day of April no branch of the 
 public service was working with more order and efficiency than that 
 under the control of this bureau. All obstacles and impediments — 
 and they were of the gravest character — w r ere yielding <o the intelli- 
 gence, the indomitable zeal and devotion of the officers. On the 1st 
 day of May, over a large portion of the Confederacy, the service 
 will be paralysed. Leaving out the plea of harsh and cruel dealing 
 with these officers — a large majority of whom are disabled by wounds 
 and disease, and have resigned higher to take inferior commissions — 
 I regard the statement I have made as sufficient warrant for me to 
 suggest a recommendation that Congress make some provision for 
 reinstating these officers in the enrolling service, with their proper 
 commissions. 
 
 VI. Another grave interruption has come of the occasional, but 
 too frequent, assignment of officers, commanding in the field, to the 
 duty of conscription and recruiting in particular localities. In every 
 instance this has unduly disturbed the production of the country, has 
 violated legal right, has failed to send men into the field, and has been 
 unjust to the general service. In no instance has an officer com- 
 manding in the field, charged with local conscription, sent a conscript 
 out of his department. The assumption by local authorities to de- 
 termine liability to service has uniformly been detrimental, keeping 
 unnecessarily many from the field, and impeding and delaying the 
 conscript officers in sending others. 
 
 VII. In my report of December 5th, 1863. I estimated that nearly 
 one-third more men went into the field, directly, under the compulsion 
 of the law, than passed through the camps of instruction. My belief 
 is, that the proportion has been increased since the passage of the 
 acts of 5th January and 17th February; that is, that the conscript 
 rolls and assignments will not exhibit one-half the number of men 
 who have gone into the service, since the 5th of January. Proper 
 returns to the Adjutant and Inspector General's office should make an 
 accurate exhibit of these accretions. General orders have been inop- 
 erative to prevent this mode of direct volunteering, and requisitions 
 for the men by enrolling officers and this bureau have been unheeded, 
 
36 
 
 The abuse exists in every military department. Your attention is 
 respectfully and earnestly invited to this matter; and a rigid inspec- 
 tion of company rolls is recommended. 
 
 VII. I . The applications for details in the various departments of the 
 Government, and in other pursuits, have increased, and are daily 
 increasing. The allegation of public necessity is generally set forth ; 
 and it is very difficult for this bureau to determine I h- t ive endeavored 
 to limit such details as rigidly as possible ; but have not succeeded to the 
 extent which, it appears to me, the public service demands. My % opink>n 
 is, that all proper labor, except of mechanical experts and agrieulU- 
 ralists, can, by due effort, be furnished from the exempt classes, the 
 reserves, the light duty conscripts, and the invalid corps : and that 
 there is no absolute necessity, at this time, for one detail in ten of the 
 able-bodied men between eighteen and forty five. I believe stern 
 adherence to a rule embracing this conclusion won Id not diminish the 
 vigor of the productive industry to any appreciable extent. 
 
 The exceptions are very rare which involve a permanent necessity 
 of departing from the provisions of sections eight and nine of the act 
 of February 17th, 1864. At present there is not one department of 
 the Government, or one enterprise in the country, which is not clamor- 
 ing for such departure. The various bureaus of Government ask over 
 twelve thousand able-bodied men. The railroads ask at least one 
 brigade beyond the allowance of exempts. The express companies 
 demand nearly a regiment ; and State authorities fully ten thousand. 
 Wherever a contract is made with the Government, in which a large 
 profit is provided, the Government is immediately called upon to do 
 the work for which it pays. Thus, a railroad, an express, telegraph, 
 or manufacturing company, contracts with the Government, and lays 
 its profits ; it then asks the Government to detail from the army, or 
 abstain from the military use of, all the labor necessary to fulfill the 
 contract. The evil is an enormous one. The authority of this bureau 
 is not competent to the remedy. 
 
 IX. In many localities, it has been found expedient, indeed, neces- 
 sary, to suspend wholly, or partially, the operations of conscription. 
 This has been done in localities between the lines of our armies, and 
 those of the enemy — so far as the reserve classes are concerned — for 
 the obvious reason of preventing those classes from becoming pris- 
 oners of war. And it has been extended to all classes, within the 
 enemy's lines, from the impossibility of the enrolling officers opera- 
 ting. In the first congressional district of North Carolina, the whole 
 matter has been turned over to the Governor of that State ; the men 
 to be used for State defence. 
 
 X. Frequent complaints are made of the inefficiency and corrup- 
 tion of the enrolling officers. Such complaints are made against the 
 generals in the field, and all the departments of the Government. In 
 the case of enrolling officers they are sometimes well founded, and 
 active efforts are made to remedy the evils. In general, however, 
 these complaints are the results of ignorance, or the baffled, endeavor 
 to escape the service, or of malice, because the duty of the officers 
 of conscription requires them to exempt certain persons for suffi- 
 
cient legal reasons. I can congratulate you on the assurance 
 that the c.iief officers in the enrolling service discharge their duties 
 wit i as much zeal, intelligence and efficiency as any officers in the 
 Government. There may he defects in the administration of the con- 
 script laws, and dereliction among the officers; but I have no hesita- 
 tion in asserting, that the country and the Government has just reason 
 to be satisfied, both with the system and the officers. As to the officers 
 of this bureau, immediately under my eye. I have, without undue 
 assumption, great pride in testifying to their zeal, their apt intelli- 
 gence, their untiring industry, and absorbing devotion in the public 
 service. 
 
 In view of the important and delicate service you have confided to 
 my administration, 1 cannot refrain from the expression of my grate- 
 ful acknowledgement to you, and to the eminent public servant who 
 acts as your assistant, for the patient and courteous consideration you 
 have given to all my applications; and for the enlightened, judicious, 
 and prompt instructions by which you have authorized and enabled 
 rue to execute your order.-. Of the nature, the extent, the intricacy, 
 and the delicacy of the duties to be performed by the conscription 
 authorities you have, and what is extremely rare in the country, a full 
 and clear comprehension ; and in their performance you have gener- 
 ously permitted me to avail myself habitually of your direct and 
 minute counsel. 
 
 JOHN S. PRESTON, 
 Colonel and Superintendent. 
 
pH 8.5