Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1863-06-11

WAR DEPARTMENT, Office Of Prorost Nor.
shat General, Washington City, June ., 1s63.-
The following opinion CT Hon. William Will
ting, Solicitor OF the War Department, has
been ordered to be published by the Secretary
OF War:
The national forces, liable to perform militia
ry duty include all able bodied male citizens
Of the United States, and persons of foreign
birth who have declared their intention to be-
come citizens according to law, being between
% and as years of age.
Certain persons are excepted, divided into
eight classes. No persons but such as are
therein excepted shall be exempt (Sec2.)
II is declared the duty of the enrolling officers
to enrol all persons subject to military duty
(Sec. 81 ALI persons thus enrolled shall, be
subject, for two years after July LIST succeed
ing the enrolment, to be called into the mill
tary service. (Sec. H.
The national forces (not now in the military
seryice) enrolled under the act shall be divided
into two classes. (Sec. 81
Those OF the second class shall not be called
out until those OF the first class shall have been
exhausted.
Thus it seems, by the true construction of
this act, that while all persons coming within
its provisions are to be enrolled in the national
forces, nevertheless, under the first enrolment,
those who were in the military service at the
time the act went into effect are not to be in
Guided IN that class which is subject to the
first draft.
Several provisions of the statute are incon-
s'stent with the idea that persons in the SER
vice were to be treated as liable to draft from
the first class.
Thus, it is provided, in the seventh section,
that regulars, volunteers, militia men, or per-
sons called into the service under this or any
other act Of Congress, were to be arrested as
deserters, wherever they might be found, by
the Provost Marshal, and to be sent to the
nearest military post, thus admitting plain
distinction between these different classes OF
persons. viz: those who were then in the SER
vice, and those who were to be drafted in.
The same distinction between those who
were in the service and those who were to be
drafted in is recognised in section Is, which
provides DO pnties TO those who, being then in
the service, should volunteer to re-eniist.
The statute, in providing for the classiflca.
ton OF troops from which drafts are to be
made, enacts as follows (section 81: That the
national forces Of the United States not no,o in
the military serrice, enrolled under this act shall
be divided into two classes. Thus, those who
are ssnow' (that ia to say, on the Sd of March,
1861 in the military service, are not to be in.
cluded in either of these two classes.
And as those then March 3d) in the service
were not included in either Of these two classes,
they may be said to constitute a third class Of
the act.
As between the first and second classes the
law (Sec. y requires that the second class shall
not in any district be called into the service of
the United States until those of the first class
shall have been thus called in.
Volunteers or regulars who have been in the
service, and who had been discharged there
from. or had resigned prior to the Sd day OF
March, 1853 are liable to be drafted in the
same manner as if they had never been in the
service. NoreRard - TO be paid to thefr former
the period between the date Of their discharge
and that of the draft.
Volunteers who were in the service OF the
United States on the third Of March. 1869, and
have since that time been discharged, are not,
therefore, included in the first class from which
the first draft is inMnded to be made, and are
therefore not now liable to be called on by
dr. aft which Is to be made from that class OF
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