firmed by further experience-that they are aniline dyes. Evidently, if petroleum contains benzole, identical with coal-tar benzole, or any thing that for the color manufacture is equivalent to this, or if it can largely yield aniline, the fact will be one of great importance to the future of American commerce and manufactures.

The colors obtained from aniline and other coal-tar dyes are almost invariably distinguished by a superior brilliancy, which is readily made evident upon bringing into close proximity with them similar hues furnished by other coloring matters. The new dyes were, moreover, in the outset, of extremely high price; and though recently they have greatly declined, they are still comparatively dear. For both these reasons, the fabrics dyed with these colors have been, and still are, held at a higher value on such account. Perkin's purple dye was for a long time held at its weight in gold. In the London Exhibition of 1862, Mr. Nicholson exhibited a crown constructed of crystals of acetate of rosaniline, and which was valued at £100 sterling. The writer is informed that at the present time the imported dyes can be bought in New York at prices of from $5 to $9 the pound, in gold. These coloring matters were, nevertheless, even when held at a much higher price, available to the dyer, and chiefly for three reasons: 1, their very high coloring power, so that a little of the dye goes a great way; 2, the fact that the process of dyeing with them is usually extremely simple; 3, the higher price the dyed fabrics would command. The power, for example, of the mauve and magenta is shown by the fact that th of a grain of either will color substantially a gallon of alcohol. And such has been the demand for the dyes, that, in England at least, the production of Hofmann's patent violet, obtained by action of the iodides of ethyle, &c., on rosaniline, speedily occasioned a considerable rise in the price of iodine.

Whatever may in the outset have been said to the contrary, it is now well ascertained that the coal-tar colors do not withstand the action of light; but that, as a rule, they lose their brilliancy and fade even more readily than other similar colors. In this respect, however, it is already demonstrated that much depends on the mode of preparing and applying the dyes; and some of these, in any case, produce much more durable colors than others. M. Chevreul and Mr. Perkin agree in pronouncing the hues of magenta usually very fugitive, and most so upon cotton. Aniline purple is said to resist light among the best; and azuline, bleu de Paris, and the yellow from picric acid, are also very stable.

When Mr. Perkin wrote, in 1861, only four of all the dyes above enumerated were as yet employed by the dyer and printer; namely, aniline purple, aniline crimson, picrie acid, and azuline. It is evident that by the present time the number has become greatly increased. A remarkable quality in all the coal-tar dyes is

their strong affinity for all manner of animal fibres (illustrated even in the tenacity of the stain they leave on the fingers), and their indifference to vegetable fibrous materials. Thus, they take effect most perfectly on silk and on wool, and in these they exhibit their richest hues. With these fabrics, as a rule, no mordants are required, and very little, indeed, beyond thoroughly cleansing the silk or wool, plunging it into a proper solution of the dye, and then taking it out and washing: the dye is so strongly attracted to the fibres, that it may be said to become fixed in an instant; while some of the dyes, as aniline purple and violine, are thus so completely withdrawn from the liquid holding them in solution, that the latter is speedily left colorless. In fact, with silk and wool one great difficulty the dyer has to contend with is the tendency of the fibres thus to become dyed unevenly.

The dyeing of silk with aniline purple, violine, and roseine, is essentially effected by adding an alcoholic solution of the dyes, diluted with hot water acidulated with tartaric acid, to a dyebath of acidulated cold water, and working the silk in this until of the required shade; with fuchsine, picric acid, chinoline blue, and violet, still more simply, by working the silk in cold aqueous solutions of the dyes, with the first two especially avoiding acids; with azuline, in the color-solution acidulated with sulphuric acid, first at a low, and then at a high temperature, and afterwards carefully rinsing in water, working in soap lather, &c. The dyeing of wool with any of these colors requires simply a dye-bath consisting of a dilute aqueous color-solution, at a temperature of about 40° F. In case, however, of linen, cotton, paper or other substances of a vegetable nature, the dye may require to be prepared with some material that shall play the part of a mordant, as in Puller's and Perkin's process with tannin and stannate of soda, or else the fabric may first be coated, or the dye itself mixed, with some albuminous or animal matter, in order to secure action of the dye on the fibre. It is stated, however, that fuchsine, violine, roseine, and the chinoline colors will act directly on vegetable fibres, while picric and rosolic acids are not applicable to the dyeing of cotton. The tannin process, just named, and also another in which a basic carbonate or oxide of lead is first formed on the parts to be colored, and the fabric then worked in the coloring solution, the color to be removed by soap from the portions not mordanted, are among the methods resorted to for printing calicoes with coal-tar colors.

When the dyeing of fabrics with the coal-tar colors began to be practised, fears were entertained that the health of the workmen would suffer. Mr. Perkin states that during the few years of his experience in the business, no sickness had occurred among the workmen that could be traced to the use of his own--the aniline purple dye. In respect to working in aniline, the case would appear to be different. Dr.

month, has adopted a constitution and submitted it to you for your approval or rejection. That constitution is based upon the principles of freedom, and it is for you now to say, by your voluntary and unbiased action, whether it shall be your fundamental law. While it may have defects in the main, it is in accordance with the views of that portion of the people who have been resisting the fratricidal attempts which have been made during the last three years. The Convention has fixed the 14th day of March next on which to decide this great question, and the General Commanding is only following the instructions of the Government when he says to you that every facility will be offered for the expression of your sentiments, uninfluenced by any considerations save those which affect your own interests and those of your posterity. If you will institute a government of your own, he feels great confidence in assuring you that quiet and security will soon be restored to your entire State. Those who have been unwisely led, by the counsel of bad men, to engage in this unjustifiable and wicked rebellion, will speedily return and acknowledge the rightful sovereignty of the State, as well as the supremacy of the National Government over the whole domain, and peace will prevail throughout the land. The election will be held and the return be made in accordance with the schedule adopted by the Convention, and no interference from any quarter will be allowed to prevent the free expression of the loyal men of the State on that day. The schedule will be hereto appended to render the election valid. There must be cast five thousand four hundred and six votes.

FRED. STEELE,
Major-General Commanding.

The popular vote on the Constitution as returned, was 12,177 in its favor, and 226 against

it. There was also chosen at said election a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor, State Treasurer, Attorney-General, three Supreme Court Judges, three members of Congress, six out of nine Circuit Judges, seven of nine Prosecuting Attorneys, twentythree out of twenty-five State Senators, fiftynine out of seventy-five members of the Assembly. The counties also elected Sheriffs, County and Circuit Clerks, County and Probate Judges, Treasurers, Coroners, School Commissioners, Surgeons, Justices, and Constables. The Legislature assembled on April 25th, and elected William Fishback and Elisha Baxter Senators to Congress in Washington. question relative to their admission to seats was discussed, but not decided by the Senate.

The

On September 22d, the rebel Legislature of the State assembled. Thirteen members were present in the Senate, and forty in the House. A message was delivered by the rebel Governor Hannigan, and A. P. Garland was elected to the Congress at Richmond-Albert Pike being the opposing candidate.

ARMY, CONFEDERATE. The acts of the Congress at Richmond, by which their armies were formed, were revised at the beginning of 1864. On December 28, 1863, it was enacted that no person liable to military service should be permitted, or allowed to furnish a substitute for such service; on January 5, 1864, it was enacted that no person liable to military service should be exempted by reason of his having furnished a substitute. In February, a

general military act was passed, which provided as follows:

1. That all white men, residents of the Confederate States, between the ages of seventeen and fifty, shall be in the military service of the Confederate States during the war.

2. That all between the ages of eighteen and fortyfive now in service shall be retained during the present war in the same organizations in which they were serving at the passage of this act, unless they are regularly discharged or transferred.

4. That no person shall be relieved from the operation of this act by reason of having been discharged, where no disability now exists, nor by reason of having furnished a substitute; but no person who has heretofore been exempted on account of religious opinions, and paid the required tax, shall be required to render military service.

5. That all between seventeen and eighteen years and forty-five and fifty years of age shall form a reserve corps, not to serve out of the State in which they reside.

7. That any person of the last named failing to attend at the place of rendezvous within thirty days, as required by the President, without a sufficient reason, shall be made to serve in the field during the war.

8. That all the duties of provost and hospital guards and clerks, and of clerks, guards, agents, employés, or laborers, in the Commissary and Quartermaster Department, in the Ordnance Bureau and Navy Department, and all similar duties, shall be performed by persons who are declared, by a board of surgeons, as unable to perform military service in the field. The President may detail such bodies of troops or individuals required to be enrolled under the fifth section of this act (between the ages of fortysuch duties. Persons between seventeen and eighteen five and fifty) as may be needed for the discharge of years of age shall not be assigned to such duties. The President is empowered to detail artisans, mechanics, or persons of scientific skill, to perform indispensable duties in the departments or bureaus herein mentioned.

9. That any Quartermaster, or Assistant Quartermaster, Commissary, or Assistant Commissary (other than those serving with organizations in the field), or other officer in the Ordnance Bureau, or Navy service, who shall hereafter retain or employ any Agent, or Provost-Marshal, or officer in the conscript person subject to military duty, as herein provided, shall be cashiered.

10. Repeals all existing exemption laws, and exempts the following:

1. All who shall be held unfit for military service, under rules to be prescribed by the Secretary of War. 2. The Vice-President of the Confederate States, the members and officers of Congress, of the several State Legislatures, and such other Confederate and State officers as the President or the Governors of the respective States may certify to be necessary for the proper administration of the Confederate or State Governments, as the case may be.

3. Every minister of religion authorized to preach according to the rules of his church, and who, at the passage of this act, shall be regularly employed in the discharge of his ministerial duties; superintendents and physicians of asylums of the deaf, dumb, blind, and insane; one editor for each newspaper being published at the time of the passage of this act, and such employés as said editor may certify on oath to be indispensable to the publication of such newspaper; the public printer of the Confederate and State Governments, and such journeymen printers as the said public printer shall certify on oath to be indispensable to perform the public printing; one skilled apothecary in each apothecary store who was doing business as such apothecary on the 10th day of October, 1862, and has continued said business without intermission since that period; all physicians over

the age of thirty years who are now and have been for the last seven years in the practice of their profession, but the term physician shall not include dentists. [The old law exists covering professors and teachers.] All superintendents of public hospitals established by law before the passage of this act, and such employés as the said superintendent shall certify on oath to be essential to the management thereof.

4. There shall be exempt one person as owner or agriculturalist on each farm or plantation upon which there are now and were, on the first day of January last, fifteen able-bodied field hands between the ages of sixteen and fifty, upon the following conditions: 1st. This exemption shall only be granted in cases in which there is no white male adult on the farm or plantation not liable to military duty, nor unless the person claiming the exemption was, on the 1st day of January, 1864, either the owner and manager or overseer of said plantation; but in no case shall more than one person be exempted for one farm or plantation. 2d. Such person shall first execute a bond, payable to the Confederate States of America, in such form and with such security and in such penalty as the Secretary of War may prescribe, conditioned that he will deliver to the Government, at some railroad depot, or such other place or places as may be designated by the Secretary of War, within twelve months next ensuing, one hundred pounds of bacon, or, at the election of the Government, its equivalent in pork, and one hundred pounds of net beef (said beef to be delivered on foot), for each ablebodied slave on said farm or plantation within the above said ages, whether said slaves are in the field or not, which said bacon, or pork and beef, shall be paid for by the Government at the price fixed by the Commissioners of the State under the impressment act: Provided, That when the person thus exempted shall produce satisfactory evidence that it has been impossible for him, by the exercise of proper diligence, to furnish the amount of meat thus contracted for and leave an adequate supply for the subsistence of those living on said farm, the Secretary of War shall direct a commutation of the same to the extent of twothirds thereof in grain or other provisions to be delivered by such persons as aforesaid at equivalent rates. Such person shall furthermore bind himself to sell the marketable surplus of provisions and grain now on hand, and which he may raise from year to year, while the exemption continues, to the Government or to the families of soldiers, at prices fixed by the Commissaries of the State, under the impressment act: Provided, That any person exempted as aforesaid shall be entitled to a credit of twenty-five per cent. on any amount of meat which he may deliver within three months from the passage of this act: Provided, further, That persons coming within the provisions of this exemption shall not be deprived of the benefit thereof by reason of having been enrolled since the first day of February, 1864.

repealing the act approved April 14, 1863, exempting contractors for carrying the mails of the Confederate States, and the drivers of post coaches and hacks, from military service: Provided, That all the exemptions granted under this act, shall only continue while the persons so exempted are actually engaged in their respective pursuits or occupations. 10. That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to grant details, under general rules and regulations to be issued from the War Department, either of persons between forty-five and fifty years of age, or from the army in the field, in all cases where, in his judgment, justice, equity, and necessity require such details, and he may revoke such orders of details whenever he thinks proper: Provided, That the power herein granted to the President to make details and exemptions shall not be construed to authorize the exemption or detail of any contractor for furnishing supplies of any kind to the Government by reason of said contract, unless the head or Secretary of the department making such contract shall certify that the personal services of such contractor are indispensable to the execution of the contract: Provided, further, That whenever such contractor shall fail diligently and faithfully to proceed with the execution of such contract, his exemption or detail shall cease.

12. That in appointing local boards of surgeons for the examination of persons liable to military service, no member composing the same shall be appointed from the county or enrolling district in which they are required to make such examination.

Under the provisions of this bill, almost the whole male population can be employed either in the army, or in raising supplies. On the 5th of October, an order, was issued revoking all details, furloughs, and temporary exemptions of men, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. At the session in December, 1864, a new bill was introduced which omitted the exemption of fifteen field hands.

In November the States of North Carolina These acts have never been executed strictly. and Georgia had respectively fourteen thousand and fifteen thousand exempts acting as State officers. More than thirty thousand were estimated to be exempted as State officers by the Conscription Bureau, and a hundred thousand from physical disability. The number of physicians exempted was estimated between three and four thousand; and farmers, one hundred and fourteen thousand.

No facts can at present be obtained by which to determine the strength of the armies in the field, or the real military power of the Confederacy. The following estimate was pub

Total...

Deduct for ordinary mortality.
For population within enemy's lines..
For losses in battle, and by unusual dis-

The old law is reenacted relating to railroads.

6. Nothing herein contained shall be construed as

eases....

Remainder..

Deduct 10 per cent. for exemptions for disability and other causes... Prisoners in the enemy's hands...

Total....

.1,299,700 881,650

1,681,850

200,000 840,515

225,000

765,515

865,835

86,584

50,000

186,584

729,251

36,462

692,789

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 opinion, 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, 1 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.)

ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. During 1864 the number of men called for by the 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 is equivalent to a call for two hundred thousand prior to March first (1) and not heretofore credited, (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