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:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

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.

The number of men called for during the may be thus recapitulated:

year

Call of Feb. 1st.

Call of March 14th. Call of July 18th... Call of Dec. 20th.

500,000

200,000

500,000

800,000

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 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 appoint 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'ES 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.
SIE: 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

er quotas of the States.

6th. This bidding and bantering for recruits, white and black, bas delayed the reenforcement 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; contend that the treason and rebellion of the master 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

I

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 and the system has been practically abolished. Marshal General as on the whole unfavorable,

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 British 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

of continental European powers. All of these persons were voluntary immigrants into the United States. They enlisted after their arrival on our shores, of their own free accord, within our own limits and jurisdiction and not in any foreign country. The Executive Government has no knowledge of the nature of the special inducements which led these volunteers to emigrate from their native countries, or of the purposes for which they emigrated. It has, however, neither directly nor indirectly invited their immigration by any offers of employment in the military or naval service. When such persons were found within the United States, exactly the same inducements to military service were open to them which, by authority of law, were offered at the same time to citizens of the United States.

It is a notorious fact, manifest to all the world, that a vigorous and continual tide of emigration is flowing from Europe, and especially from portions of the British empire, and from Germany and Sweden, into the United States. This immigration, like the immigration which preceded it, results from the reciprocal conditions of industrial and social life in Europe and America. Of the mass of im

migrants who arrive on our shores, far the largest number go immediately into the occupations of peaceful industry. Those, on the contrary, who are susceptible to the attractions of military life, voluntarily enter the national service with a similar class of our own native citizens, upon the same equal in ducements and with the same patriotic motives. There is no law of nations and no principle of international comity which requires us to refuse their aid in the cause of the country and humanity.

Until 1864 the inferior standing of colored troops in the army with respect to bounty, pay, and pensions remained unchanged, notwithstanding the protest of the Secretary of War and other officials against the injustice thus done to men who shared all the dangers and privations of the war, and who were also liable to draft. The Army Appropriation Bill, passed in June, 1864, disposed of this vexed question by putting the colored soldiery on a footing with the white troops. The following are the sections of the bill relating to the subject:

2. All persons of color who have been, or may be, mustered into the military service of the United States, shall receive the same uniform, clothing, arms, equipments, camp equipage, rations, medical and hospital attendance, pay, and emoluments, other than bounty, as other soldiers of the regular or volunteer forces of the United States of a like arm of the service, from and after the 1st of January, 1864. And every person of color who shall hereafter be mustered into the service shall receive such sums in bounty as the President shall order in the different States and parts of the United States, not exceeding one hundred dollars.

3. All persons enlisted and mustered into the service as volunteers under the call dated October 17, 1863, for three hundred thousand volunteers, who were at the time of enlistment actually enrolled and subject to draft in the State in which they volunteered, shall receive from the United States the same, amount of bounty, without regard to color.

4. All persons of color who were free on the 19th day of April, 1861, and who have been enlisted and mustered into the military service of the United States, shall from the time of their enlistment be entitled to receive the pay, bounty, and clothing allowed to such persons by the laws existing at the time of their enlistment; and the Attorney-General of the United States is hereby authorized to determine any question of law arising under this provision; and if the Attorney-General aforesaid shall

determine that any of such enlisted persons are entitled to receive any pay, bounty, or clothing, in addition to what they have already received, the Secretary of War shall make all necessary regulations to enable the pay department to make payment in accordance with such determination. (See CoNGRESS, U. S.)

An order was soon after issued from the War Department to pay colored soldiers six months' full wages for the period embraced between January 1st and July 1st, 1864; and in August the Attorney-General, in accordance with the provisions of section 4, decided that colored men volunteering prior to 1864, were entitled to the same pay, bounty, and clothing, as other volunteers. By section 14 of the act of July 4, 1864, the widows and children of colored soldiers dying in battle, or of wounds or disease contracted in the military service, were declared entitled to pensions, provided such widows and children were free persons.

be enlisted into the army, principally in the During the year colored troops continued to Southern States, although several regiments, whose organization had commenced in the North in 1863, departed previous to July for the seat of War. If the statement of the Solicitor of the War Department, quoted above, may be relied upon, upwards of 100,000 of this class of troops were enlisted in 1864. Opinions differed quite as much as in 1863, upon the propriety, politically considered, of employing negroes as soldiers, and upon their value in a military aspect; but toward the close of the year, in view of their soldierly conduct on various trying occasions, it seemed to become the settled conviction that they would form a useful branch of the service. The Corps d'Afrique organized by Gen. Banks in 1863, and intended to comprise about 15,000 men, was described in May, 1864, by an army correspondent in Louisiana, as greatly depleted in numbers by disease, by discharges for physical incapacity, and by desertions, and in consequence thoroughly demoralized. The rate of mortality among the men was said to have been unprecedented in the history of the war, and their idle, wasteful, and slovenly habits, it was alleged, made them unfitted for soldiers. On the other hand Adjutant-General Thomas, who had devoted several months of the previous year to organizing negro regiments in the South, and who had conceived a high opinion of their capacity, was amply confirmed in his views by his experience of 1864, and urged the necessity of enlisting more of this class of troops, as also of raising their pay. He also issued the following order imposing upon negro troops their proportionate share of military duty:

The incorporation into the army of the United States of colored troops renders it necessary that they should be brought, as speedily as possible, to the highest state of discipline.

Accordingly, the practice which has hitherto prevailed, no doubt from necessity, of requiring these troops to perform most of the labor on fortifications, and the labor and fatigue duties of permanent stations and camps, will cease, and they will be only