It was also stated at that time that if onethird of this number (230,932) were added to the army in the field, it would consist of 461,844 men. From this it might be inferred that the force then in the field was 230,912. This is about the number of veteran troops estimated to be in the service at the beginning of the year, to which 120,000 conscripts were added. The number of youths passing annually from sixteen to seventeen years of age, was estimated at 62,000.

The Secretary of War, in his report at the session of Congress in November, alludes to the enlistment of negroes as at that time unnecessary. He says:

While it is encouraging to know this resource for further and future efforts at our command, my own judgment does not yet either perceive the necessity or approve the policy of employing slaves in the higher duties of soldiers; they are confessedly inferior in all respects to our white citizens in the qualifications of the soldier, and I have thought we have within the military age as large a proportion of our whole population as will be required or can be advantageously employed in active military operations. If, then, the negro be employed in the war, the inferior is preferred to the superior agent for the work. In such a war as this, waged against foes bent with malignant persistence on our destruction, and for all that man holds priceless-the most vital work is that of the soldier, and for it wisdom and duty require the most fitting workmen. The superior instrumentalities should be preferred. It will not do, in my opin ion, to risk our liberties and safety on the negro while the white man may be called to the sacred duty of defence. For the present it seems best to leave the subordinate labors of society to the negro, and to impose its highest, as now existing, on the superior

class.

The ration of the soldier is per month 10 lbs. of bacon, 26 lbs. of coarse meal, 7 lbs. of flour, or some hard biscuit, 3 lbs. of rice, 13 of salt, half a bar of soap, and, in the season, potatoes and vegetables. Sometimes fresh meat is allowed. No sugar, no molasses, no coffee are given except to the sick. The Government is well supplied with coarse clothing for the soldiers.

A benevolent asssociation, known as the Richmond Ambulance Corps, was early formed to look after the wounded in battle. Their agency was similar to the Sanitary Commission of the north. They have followed the Virginian army and been present in every battle. They have every appurtenance necessary in their humane vocation, such as hospital supplies, sugar, tea, coffee, etc., with utensils for preparing every thing on a large scale.

The stringency of the blockade has compelled the inhabitants to manufacture the materials for war. The Ordnance Department has organized twelve arsenals, eight armories, seven large harness shops, four powder mills, a laboratory for smelting lead, and many other small establishments. They have supplied the army with two hundred field batteries, upwards of five hundred thousand small arms, several hundred thousand sets of infantry accoutrements, and millions of cartridges. A shoe establish

ment in Richmond, employed by the Government, make six hundred pairs daily. The material brought through the blockade in 1863, was estimated to be sufficient to put four hundred thousand men in the field.

So successful has been the manufacture of arms, that all the troops are provided with the best rifles, and the smooth bore has nearly disappeared. The field artillery of the armies comprises now more than a thousand pieces. The gun chiefly used is the 12-pounder Napoleon, to which has been added the 10-pounder Parrott. The number of cannon foundries built up since the commencement of the war, is six; two of which have capacity to cast guns of the largest dimensions. Five powder mills have been erected in different places, one of which alone is represented to be capable of producing all the powder required. Four hundred thousand percussion caps are now manufactured in a day, and there is sufficient machinery to produce a million. The manufacture of the materials of war seems now to have reached such perfection, that it is asserted to be sufficient to supply all wants, without asking any thing from other countries. Such important changes as were made of the commanders of the armies are stated elsewhere. (See ARMY OPERATIONS.)

1864 the number of men called for by the ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. During President to reënforce the army amounted in the aggregate to 1,500,000, although by an explanatory statement of the Provost Marshal General this number was in fact reduced to 1,200,000. Notwithstanding the impulse which the high bounties and premiums offered in 1863 gave to enlistments under the October call of that year for 300,000 men, the number of men realized seems to have been insufficient for the needs of the service, and on Feb. 1st, 1864, an order was issued by the President to draft 500,000 three years men on March 10th, less the number enlisted or drafted into the service prior to March 1st, and not previously credited. This practically amounted to a call for 200,000, as appears by the following circular:

WAR DEPARTMENT, PROVOST MARSHAL GENERAL'S OFFICE, Feb. 1, 1864. The President's order of this date, for a draft on tenth (10th) March, for five hundred thousand (500,000) men, after deducting all who may be raised prior to March first (1) and not heretofore credited, is equivalent to a call for two hundred thousand (200,000) men in addition to the three hundred thousand (300,000) called for October seventeenth (17th).

JAS. B. FRY, Prov. Mar. Gen.

By an order dated Jan. 14th, 1864, the Provost Marshal General also directed that the time for paying the bounty of $300 and $400, and the $15 and $25 premium, be extended to March 1st.

In anticipation of the momentous campaign which was impending, and the losses likely to be incurred by the troops in the field, the President on March 14th followed up his pre

vious call by a supplementary one for 200,000 men, "to supply the force required to be drafted for the navy, and to provide an adequate reserve force for all contingencies." The order also provided as follows:

The 15th day of April, 1864, is designated as the time up to which the number required from each ward of a city, town, etc., may be raised by voluntary enlistments, and drafts will be made in the ward of a city, town, etc., which shall not have filled the quota assigned to it within the time designated, for the number required to fill said quota. The drafts will be commenced as soon after the 15th day of April as practicable. The Government bounties as now paid continue until April 1st, 1864, at which time the additional bounties cease. On and after that date one hundred dollars bounty only will be paid, as provided by act approved July 22d, 1863.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

The severe losses sustained by Gens. Grant and Sherman, the disasters connected with the Red River campaign, and other untoward circumstances, far more than neutralized the results obtained from the calls of February and March, and induced the President to make still another

levy. Congress had meantime made important changes in the law of enrolment, as will be seen by the following proclamation:

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. The allowance of credits having diminished the number of men to be obtained under this call to somewhat above 200,000 (although, according to the President's statement, 250,000 men were actually put into the army and navy under the call), a further call for 300,000 volunteers to serve for one, two, or three years, was issued on Dec. 20th. Quotas of States, districts, and sub-districts were directed to be assigned these should not be filled by Feb. 15th, 1865, a by the Provost Marshal General, and in case draft to supply the deficiency was ordered to

commence forthwith.

1,500,000

And whereas the new enrolment heretofore ordered is so far completed as that the aforementioned act of Congress may now be put in operation, for recruiting and keeping up the strength of the armies in the field, for garrisons, and such military operations as may be required for the purpose of suppressing the rebellion and restoring the authority of the United States Government in the insurgent States;

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do issue this my call for five hundred thousand volunteers for the military service; provided, nevertheless, that this call shall be reduced by all credits which may be established under section eight of the aforesaid act, on account of persons who have entered the naval service during the present rebellion, and by credits for men furnished to the military service in excess of calls heretofore made.

Volunteers will be accepted under this call for one, two, or three years, as they may elect, and will be entitled to the bounty provided by the law for the period of service for which they enlist.

And I hereby proclaim, order, and direct that immediately after the fifth day of September, 1864, being fifty days from the date of this call, a draft for troops to serve for one year shall be had in every town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election district, or county not so subdivided, to fill the quota which shall be assigned to it under this call, or any

part thereof which may be unfilled by volunteers on the said fifth day of September, 1864. VOL. IV.-3 A

In the third volume of this work the number of men in the military service at the close of 1863 was estimated at somewhat less than 600,000. The degree to which the army was depleted during 1864 by the casualties of the field, discharges for physical incapacity, desertion, and the expiration of terms of service, cannot be estimated with any approach to exactness; and in like manner it is impossible, in the absence of official statements, to ascertain how largely it was recruited. For reasons of public policy the Government has long ceased to afford information on the subject, and has even on several occasions arrested and punished persons, whether connected with the army or in civil life, who have stated, from official sources, facts tending to show the strength of the national forces. Had 600,000 men been actually raised in 1864 and added to the army, its total strength, even after deducting a liberal percentage for losses of all kinds, would have approximated probably to 1,000,000. The latter estimate, however, is notoriously very far from the truth, notwithstanding the statement of Senator Wilson, Chairman of the Military Committee of the Senate, that between October, 1863, and June, 1864, 600,000 white

troops had been raised; or that of Mr. Whiting, Solicitor of the War Department, in a speech delivered in Boston in November, that the colored troops alone then numbered 155,000 men. The fact that four calls for troops were made in the course of the year indicates either that the casualties of the service were greater than in any previous year of the war, or that the men called for were not in reality obtained, whatever the returns might show. The latter is in all probability the true cause of the frequency of the calls; and from their apparent inefficacy to recruit the army to an extent commensurate with the magnitude of its operations, it may be presumed that the military strength on January 1st, 1865, was not greater, if so great, as a year previous. The neglect of duty in the examining surgeons in passing men physically incapacitated for service, the frauds of bounty and substitute brokers, and the wholesale desertions of "bounty jumpers " (as those recruits or substitutes are called who systematically desert after receiving their bounties, and often with the connivance of Government employés), have reduced the number of enlistments to a comparatively small percentage; and hence the repeated calls of the President for additional men, instead of enormously increasing the strength of the army, barely enable it to maintain its standard. On one point only an explicit official statement of the results of recruiting has been made public. The Provost Marshal General, in reference to the reenlistment of veteran volunteers during the fall of 1863 (see vol. iii., pp. 22, 23) says: "Over one hundred and thirty-six thousand tried soldiers, who would otherwise, ere this, have been discharged, were secured for three years longer. Organizations which would have been lost to the service were preserved and recruited, and capable and experienced officers were retained in command. The force thus organized and retained has performed an essential part in the great campaign of 1864, and its importance to the country cannot be over-estimated."

A temporary addition was made to the army in the spring and summer of 1864 of a class of troops known as "Hundred-day men," numbering about 100,000, and voluntarily furnished by the governors of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. They were organized as regiments, and to serve one hundred days from the date of their muster into the service, unless sooner discharged. It was further stipulated that they should receive no bounty, nor be credited on any draft. Their services having been accepted, Congress appropriated $25,000,000 for equipping them, and during May and June the hundred days' men went forward in large numbers to perform garrison duty and otherwise relieve old and disciplined troops who were sent to the front.

Immediately after the call of July 18th for 500,000 men, the Provost Marshal General

issued a series of instructions for the guidance of enlisting officers. The bounties provided by law were announced to be, for recruits-including representative recruits-(white or colored) for one year, $100; for two years, $200; for three years, $300. A first installment of bounty, amounting to one-third of the whole sum, was to be paid to the recruit when mustered in. The premiums previously paid for procuring recruits were discontinued, and neither drafted men nor substitutes, furnished either before or after the draft, were to be entitled to bounty from the United States. The "representative recruits," alluded to above, were those offered by persons not fit for military duty, and not liable to draft, from age or other causes, who desired to be personally represented in the army. The Provost Marshal General issued a circular to further this laudable project, and ordered the names of persons thus represented by recruits to be officially recorded. Many others, also, in anticipation of the draft, furnished substitutes for one, two, or three years, for whom they received no bounty from the General Government, although generally assisted by the town, county, or State in which they resided. The amount of these local bounties differed in different parts of the country. In the agricultural districts, where every able-bodied man could find abundant occupation during the harvesting season, it was no uncommon thing to offer from $1,200 to $1,500 for a three years' recruit; and even among the large floating population of unnaturalized foreigners in the seaboard cities, from which substitutes were mainly drawn, the prices demanded were unprecedented in the history of the war.

The

The act of Congress of July 4th, 1864, having provided that the State Executive might "send recruiting agents into any of the States declared to be in rebellion, except the States of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana, to recruit volunteers, who should be duly credited to the States procuring them," a series of instructions on the subject were, on July 9th, promulgated by the War Department. recruiting agents were to report through the commanding officers of certain designated rendezvous for the reception of this class of recruits, to the commander of the military district, department, or army in which such rendezvous might be situated, and were to be subject to all the rules and articles of war. Commanding officers were further directed to afford agents all reasonable facilities for the performance of their duties, to dismiss or arrest those guilty of improper conduct, and to prevent recruiting by unauthorized parties. Many of the States hastened to avail themselves of the opportunity thus offered to fill their quotas without drawing upon their population. Gov. Andrew, of Massachusetts, was one of the first to ap point recruiting agents, and the Executives of Ohio, Connecticut, Michigan, Maine, and other States, soon followed his example. Gov. Sey

mour, of New York, was among those who declined to act in the matter. In the opinion of many military men the new plan of recruitment within the lines of military operations, was objectionable; and commanding generals held it in particular disfavor on account of the opportunities it would afford for reckless and injurious competition among State agents, and for the infraction of sound military rules. The following letter from Gen. Sherman to one of the Massachusetts agents, doubtless expresses the views of a large class of officers:

HEADQ'RS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, IN THE FIELD, NEAR ATLANTA, GEORGIA, July 30th, 1864. John A. Spooner, Esq., Agent for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Nashville, Tenn. SIR: Yours from Chattanooga, July 28, is received, notifying me of your appointment by your State as Lieutenant-Colonel and Provost Marshal of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, under the act of Congress approved July 4, 1864, to recruit volunteers to be credited to the States respectively.

On applying to Gen. Webster at Nashville, he will grant you a pass through our lines to those States, and, as I have had considerable experience in those States, would suggest recruiting depots to be established at Macon and Columbus, Miss., Selma, Montgomery, and Mobile, Alabama, and Columbus, Milledgeville, and Savannah, Georgia.

I do not see that the law restricts you to black recruits, but you are at liberty to collect white recruits also. It is waste of time and money to open rendezVous in Northwest Georgia, for I assure you I have not seen an able-bodied man, black or white, there, fit for a soldier, who was not in this army or the one opposed to it. You speak of the impression going abroad that I am opposed to the organization of colored regiments. My opinions are usually very positive, and there is no reason why you should not know them. Though entertaining profound reverence for our Congress, I do doubt their wisdom in the passage of this law:

1st. Because civilian agents about an army are a nuisance.

2d. The duty of citizens to fight for their country is too sacred a one to be peddled off by buying up the refuse of other States.

3d. It is unjust to the brave soldiers and volunteers who are fighting as those who compose this army do, to place them on a par with the class of recruits you

are after.

6th. This bidding and bantering for recruits, white and black, has delayed the reënforcement of our armies at the times when such reenforcements would

have enabled us to make our successes permanent. 7th. The law is an experiment which, pending war, is unwise and unsafe, and has delayed the universal draft, which I firmly believe will become necessary to overcome the wide-spread resistance offered us; and I also believe the universal draft will be wise and beneficial; for under the Providence of God it will separate the sheep from the goats, and demonstrate what citizens will fight for their country, and what will only talk. No one will infer from this that I am not a friend of the negro as well as the white race; I freed the slave, and the armies I have commanded have conducted to safe points more negroes than those of any general officer in the army; but I prefer negroes for pioneers, teamsters, cooks, and servants, others gradually to experiment in the art of the sol

contend that the treason and rebellion of the master\

dier, beginning with the duties of local garrisons, such as we had at Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, Nashville, and Chattanooga; but I would not draw on the poor race for too large a proportion of its active, athletic young men, for some must remain to seek new homes and provide for the old and youngthe feeble and helpless.

These are some of my peculiar notions, but I assure you they are shared by a large proportion of our fighting men. You may show this to the agents of the other States in the same business as yourself.

I am, &c.,

(Signed) W. T. SHERMAN, Maj.-Gen. Official copy-L. M. DAYTON, Aide-de-Camp.

The result of the recruitment in the insurrectionary States were reported by the Provost Marshal General as on the whole unfavorable, and the system has been practically abolished.

The necessity of procuring substitutes from a class of the population not liable to draft, led to the enlistment of a large body of recruits of foreign birth, who had never been naturalized. Under these circumstances any considerable increase in the emigration from Europe to America was looked upon with suspicion by foreign governments or statesmen unfriendly to the United States, as having been caused by improper inducements, in violation of municipal law. It was even charged, by persons high in influence in England, that agents from the United States had visited Ireland and the Brit

ish North American provinces, for the purpose of enlisting men in the army, and had despatched many recruits to America, ostensibly as mechanics or farm laborers. By a resolution adopted by the United States Senate, on May 24th, the President was requested to state

If any authority has been given any one, either in this country or elsewhere, to obtain recruits in Ireland and Canada for our army or navy; and whether any such recruits have been obtained, or whether, to the knowledge of the Government, Irishmen or Canadians have been induced to emigrate to this country in order to be recruited; and if so, what measures, if any, have been adopted in order to arrest such conduct.

to the Secretary of State, who replied, that no The resolution was referred by the President authority to recruit abroad had been given by the United States Government, and that applications for such authority had been invariably he added, that any such recruits had been obrejected. The Government had no knowledge, tained in the provinces named, or in any foreign 'country. In two or three instances it had been reported to the State Department that recruiting agents had crossed the Canadian frontier without authority, with a view to engage recruits or reclaim deserters. The complaints thus made were immediately investigated; the proceedings of such recruiting agents were promptly disavowed and condemned; the recruits or deserters, if any had been brought into the United States, were at once returned, and the offending agents were dismissed from the public service. With respect to the inducements held out by the Government to emigrants, he observed:

In the land and naval forces of the United States there are found not only some Canadians, some Englishmen, and some Irishmen, but also many subjects