The Provost Marshal General's Report On The Draft

PHOVOST MaBSIIAÏUKNF.HAIS OKHCE, 1 ffjsm.WTOS, 1). C, Oct. 19, K63. ƒ Sir - I have the honor to report for your infonnation certain general facts connected with the draft as shown by the report made up to this time. The machinery for executing the Enrollment Act s in complete working order. The law. as it stands, cannot be made to develop the entire military strength of the nation, and the execution of it has been rendered exceedingly difficult by the eiforts made in various ways to reeist or evade it, or to escape from its operation. lts fruit?, therefore, are not so abundant as they will be from a perfect law and more thoroughly established system of executing it. All the advantages, however, which could reasonably have been expected from the law, are accruing. lts general principies disiributo the burttens of military service fairly among thoee liable to bear the.-n, but there is perhnps more generosity than justness in some of its humane provisiona. With certain modifications, which can readily be made by Congress, the military strength of the country may, by the direct and indirect operation of this act, be surely and cheaply brought into the field. Several of the Western States have not been subjected to the present drait on account of the excesss of volunteers heretofore furnisfaed, and from the same cause the quotas in our Western States are rendered quite small ; the present draft is therefore but a partial one, and no specitíc total was established as the quota for it. Of tbose drawn in the present draft, including the 50 per cent. dditional, over 80 per cent. bave reported in accordance with the orders of the boards. Of the 20 per cent. who have not reported, many are not williul deserters, being unavoidably absent, at sea and on the lakes. The deserters are being arrested. Of all examined, about 30 per cent. have been oxempted on account of physical disability, and about 30 per cer.t have been exempted under the provisions of the second section of the act, or found not liable to military dutv oh account of alienage, unsuitableness of age, non residents, &c. Those who are not liable to military duty, and form no part of the national forces, and therefore bave been erroneously enrolled, appear in the general reports of the boards among those exempted, because their own non-liability to serve could not be established until they came before the boards. The number of the exemptions is thus made to appear much arger than it really is. About 40 per cent of the men examined have been held to service, and have entered the army iu person, furnished substitutes or paid commutation. About one-half of those held to ser vice have paid commutation; of the remainder, one-tbird have gone in person, and two-thirds have furnished substitutes, and all except a few in transit and a small proportion of the deserters from among the earlier substitntes accepted are in the ranks of their regimeuts in front of the enemy. It is fair to suppose that most of those who wilfully fail to report and thus become deserters are physically -fit for service ; if they had beea examined the proportion exempted for physical disability would have been reduced to 25 per cent. The proportion of exemptions would be still further reduced by purging the enrollment lists before draft of all cases of manifest unfitness, of aliens and otners not liable to miiitary duty, as may be done whore this system of raising troops is vvell established. The proportions above given are based upon the reports up to this time for the seventy-three Oongressional districts where the draft has been completed or has mo6t nearly approached completion. Since the present rebellion began, about 200,000 soldiers, after entering service, hare been discharged on Surgeon's certifícate of disability, It is probable that at least one-half of them were unfit for service when received. It may be safely eaid that forty millions of money was uselessly expended in bringing them into the field, to say nothing of their subsequent expense to the government. In Great Britain under the system of volunteer enlistments the rejections average over 27 per cent. In France, from 1831 to 1849, the average number of exemptions annually was 94,806; so that, to secure the contingent of 80,000 men, 174,860 conscripts were annually examined. Of the recruits who presented themBelves for enlistment in our regular army in 1852, 70 per cent were rejected for physical infirmities exclusive of age or stature. Between the lst of January and lst of J'uly last more than onehalf were rejected. These were men who desire to be accepted. These pro portions are of interest in connection with tbe fact that less than one-third of the drafted men who desire not to be accepted have been exemptod on aocount of physical unfitness. Thcre have been but few cases of incompetency, fraud, neglect or abuse in the examinalion of dralted men. These men have, however, in many ways been swindied by rogues having no connection with the Boards of' Enrollment, as for example, the fact that certain drafted men were physically unfit for service I bas become known to these sharpers, wben it was perhaps not knowu to the men themselves, and they have so far imposed npon the ignorance orcredulity of the drafted men ns to get from them surns ol money t secure arf j emption to which the rogues knew they were entitled and would surely receive, and the drafted men finding themselves exempted as promised, have sometimes thought and given out that they secured exeinption by bribery of drafting officors, whereai) they were legally entitled to exemption and haveth-emselves been swindled by sharpers. All bas been done that seemed proper under existing laws to check these evils, and to meet properly the few oases of oriminality and incompetenoy which have occurred araoDg the officers of this bureau. i' All the expenditures up to this time on account of this bureau, including the enrollmont, draft and pay ofofficers and persons connected with it, are but Httle over $1,200,000. These exponditures include all made on account of tho machinery which has produced the arrest and return of 20,000 deserters. The amount of money received from the draft up to this date is about ten times as great as all the expenses incurred on account óf the enrollment act; those resulting frorfl the New York riots are not, however, included in this statement, as they are more properly attributable to other cruises-and other persons than to the draft or the officers of this bureau. I am, very respect ful ly, your ob't serv't,