[HousK OF Representatives.] HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Jan. 18, 1864 —Read first and second times and ordered to be printed, and placed on the calen- der. [By Mr. Pkestov, from Committee on Qaartermat^tev Department.] To be entitled an Act extending the privileg*' of purchasing clothing at Government cost, to all persona in iti^ employment, who have been discharged for the array on account of wounds received ot disease contracted whilst in the servico. 1 Section 1. The Congrcs.'^ of the Confederate Stat is of America de 2 C7iact, That the privilege of purchasing clothing at Government 3 cost, extended to soldiers and those actually in the service fbr 4 local defence, by existing laws or usage, be and the same is here- 5 by extended to the employees of the Government in any of its 6 departments, who have been discharged from the army on account 7 of wounds received or disease contracted whilst in the servicCj 8 which disables them from performing military duty in the field. RuKfcAU OF Subsistence, ) Ric/wwnd, Dec. 21, 1863. J ^o the Hon. James A. Seddon, Secretary of War of the Confederate States of America : JSiK : Whereas the privilege of purchasing clothing, at cost of the Government, is extended to one class of Government employees, upon •the sole ground of their enrolment into military companies for the 3ocal defence of the city of Richmond; and, whereas, another class. m consequence of wounds received in defence of the country, dis- abling them from the general performance of such duties as such ea- rolment v/ould involve, are thereby deprived of said privelege; there- fore. >Ye, the undersigned disabled and discharged soldiers, clerks in ihe Commissary Bureau at Richmond, Va , beg leave to represent, ibat our non-enrolment in any of said military companies is attributa- We rather to our misfortunate than fault; that our present disabil- ity, considered vvith its cause, should be as great a guaranty of devo- tion to the courtry as enrolment of our names on any muster list wouldjmply ; that,- between our necessities and the means of supplying them, and those of employees, enrolled in said companies, there is no shadow of difference; that, in the amount of duty, until the city shall 1)6 actually threatened, our cases are parrallel, the temporary military duties of OL^r class, being always rendered in the time of release from such civil duties as are, in the meantime, performed by the other, and sn case of actual danger, none can tell whose services might prove the most efftctive, the tried cripple's in a permanent, or the untried athlete's in a moveable po