The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-11-07
The Operations Of the Draft...R Re.
port Of Provost Marshal General

port OF Provost Marshal General
Fry.
PRovosT MARSHAL GENERALS OFFICE.
WASHINGTON, d. c., Oct. l9.-SIR: have
the honor to report, for your information.
certain general facts connected with the
draft, as shown by reports up to this time.
Inc machinery for executing the enroll
The law as it stands cannot be made to de-
veiop the entire military strength of the
natlon, and the expectation of it has been
rendered exceedingly difficult by the eff
IorlS made IN various ways to resist or
evade 1t, or to escape from its operation.
us fruits, therefore, are not as abundant
as they Will be from perfect law and more
thoroughly established system of executing
1t. All the advantages, however. which
should reasonably havebeen exported from
the law are accruing.
Its general principles distribute the bur
dens of military service fairly among those
TO bear them, but there is perhaps more
generosity than justice in sonic Of its hui
name provisions. With certain modifica-
tions, which can easily be made by Con- sr.
gress, the military strength of the country
may, by the direct and indirect operations
OF this act, be surely and cheaply brought
into the field.
:, Several of the Western States have not
been subjected to the present draft on ac-
SouaI VI We eACesS OF volunteers heretofore
furnished, and from the same cause the
quotas in other Western States are rendered
quite small; the present draft is, therefore,
but partial one, and no specific total was
established as the quota for it.
OF those drawn in the present draft, in
Guiding the so per cent additional, over so
per cent have reported in accordance with
the orders of the board. OF the 20 per cent
who have not reported, many are not will
ful deserters, being unavoidably absent, at
sea and the like. The deserters are being
arrested.
Ofall examined, about 80 per cent have
been exempted on account of physical dis
ability, about 30 per cent have been ex-
empted under the provisions OF the second
section of the act, or found not liable to
m!Itary duty on account of alienage, un-
suHabieness of age, non-residents, &c, &c.
Those who are not liable to military duty,
and form no part of the national forces, and
therefore have boon enormously enrolled,
appear in the general reports of the boards
among those exempted, because their nom
ability to serve could not be established I'M
TIL they came before the boards. The num-
Der of exemptions is thus made to appear
much larger than it really is.
About forty per cent. of the men exam
ined have been held to service, and have
either entered the army in person, furnish
ed substitutes, or paid communication.
About one-half Of those held to service
have paid Communication of the remainder,
about one-third have gone in person, and
= two-thirds have furnished substitutes,
and all except few in transit and small
proportion of deserters from among the
earlier substitutes accepted, are in the
enemy.
1t is fair to suppose that most of those
who wilfully fail to report, and thus be-
come deserters, are physically fit for SER
vice; if they had been examined the pro-
portion exempted for physical disability
would have been reduced to about 25 per-
cent. The proportion Of exemption would
be still further reduced by purging the en-
rollment lists before draft, of all cases of
manifest untitness, and of aliens and others
not liable to military duty, as may be done
where this system of raising troops is well
established. tFh 80
The propositions above given are based
upon the reports up to this time from the
seventy three Congressional districts where
the draft has been completed, or has most
nearly approached completion.
Since the present rebellion began, about
two hundred thousand soldiers, after en-
tering service, have been discharged on
surgeons certificates of disability. 1t is
probable that at least one-half of them
were unfit for service when received. 1t
may be safely said that forty millions of
money was uselessly ex pended in bringing
them into the field, to say nothing of their
subsequent expense to the Government
In Great Britain, under the system of
voluntary enlistment, the reflections aver
age over q per cent. In France, from
1881 to 1862, the average number of exemp-
tons annually was 81, $50; SO that, to secure
the contingent of $4,000 men, Ia. $50 con-
scripts Were annually examined.
VI the recruits who presented themselves
for enlistment in our regular army in
nrNnr >sOs<a nar.lc
Inflrmities, exclusive of age or STATURE
Between LIST January and LIST July last.
more than one-half were rejected. These |
were men who desired to be accepted,-i
These proportions are of interest in con-
nection with the fact that less than one
third OF the drafted men who desire not to
be accepted have been exempted on ac-
count of physical untitness.
There have been but few cases of incom-
potency, fraud, neglect or abuse in the ex-
animation of drafted men. These men
nave, however, in many ways been swim
died by rogues having no connection with
the boards of enrolment, as, for example,
The fact that certain drafted men were
physically unfit for service, has become
known to these sharpers, when it was per-
haps not known to the men themselves,
but they have so far imposed upon the ig-
norance or credulity of the drafted men as
TO get from them sums Of money to secure
an exemption to which the rogues knew
hey We're entitled and would surely re-
ceive, and the drafted men, finding them
selves exempted as promised, have some
lines thought and given out that they Sc
cured exemption by bribery of drafting
whereas they We're legally entitled
o exemption, and have themselves been
'windled by sharpers.
All has been done that seemed proper
lnder existing laws, to check these evils,
md to meet properly the few cases of Grim
nality and incompetency which have &C.
urred among the officers of this bureau.
All the expenditures up to this time.on
ccount of this bureau, including the en-
draft, and pay of officers and per-
ons connected with it, are but little over
zoe, GOO. These expenditures include all
N account of the machinery which has
Produced the arrest and return of twenty
thousand deserters.
The amount of money received from the
raft up to this date is about ten times as
reat as all the expenses incurred on ac- !
cunt OF the enrolment act. Those result ,
ng from the New York riots are not. how
yer, included in this statement, as thew
re more properly Attributable to other
auses and other persons than to the draft