The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1863-11-05

Boards. The number Of the exemtions Is thus
made to appear much larger than 1t really
| is.
| About 40 per cent. of the men examln ed
have been held to service, and have entered
the army in person, furnished 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 all except
few transit and small proportion OF deser-
tiers from among the earlier substitutes accep-
ted, are in the ranks of their regiments, In
front of the enemy. 1t is fair to suppose tnat
most of those who wilfully fail to report and
thus become deserters are physically ut Tor
service; if they had been examined, the pro-
portion exemted for physical disability would
have been reduced to about twenty-five per
cent. The proportion of exemtionS would be
still further reduced by purging the enroll
ment lists, before draft, of all cases of manifest
unftness and Of aliens and others not liable
to military duty,as may be done where this
system of raising troops is well established.
The proportions above given are based up
on the reports up to this time from the seven
ty-three Congressional Districts where the
draft had been completed or has most nearly
approached completion.
Since thepresent; rebellion began about 2OO,-
900 soldieos, after entering service, have been
discharged on surgeons certificate of disabil-
| ity. 1t is probable that at least one-halt OF
them were not fit for service when received. 1t
may be surely said that $40, 600, 900 of mon
ey was uselessly expended in bringing them
into the field, to say nothing of their subse-
quent expense to the Government.
T., n Ri 20, no of
tary enlistments the reflections average over
81 per cent. In France, from 1881 to 1842,
the number of exemtions annually was a.
$780, so that to secure the contingent OF O,OOO
men. TIA, $50 conscripts were annually exam
ined.
Of the recruits who presented themselves
for enlistment in our Regular Army In 1862,
70 per cent were rejected for physical infirm-
tiles, exclusive of age or stature. Between
the first Of January and the LIST of July last
more than one-half were rejected. These
were men who desired to be accepted. These
proportions are of interest in connection with
the fact that less than one-third of the drafted
men who desire not to be accepted have been
exemted on account Of physical unftness.
There have been but few cases of incompe-
tency, fraud neglect or abuse in the examina-
er, i'll many ways been swindled by rogues
having no connection with the Boards of En-
rolment; as for example, the fact that certain
drafted men were physically unfit for service
has become known to those sharpers when it
was perhaps not known to the men them
selves, and they have so far imposed upon the
credulity of the drafted men as to get from
them sums of money to secure an exemtion
TO xuhso
and would surely receive, and the drafted men,
finding themselves exemted as promised, have
sometimes thought and given out that they
secured exemtion by bribery of drafting OIL
GERS, whereas they were legally entitled to ex-
emtion, and have themselves been swindled by
sharpers. la
Ali has been done that seemed proper I'M
der existing laws to check those evils, and to
meet properly the few cases Of criminahty and
incompetency which have occurred among the
officers at this Bureau.
All the expenditures up to this time, on &C
count of this Bureau, including the enrolment,
draft, and pay of officers and men connected
with ii, are but little over 100000. These
expenditures include all made on account of
the machinery which produced the arrest and
return of 20, 900 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
Of the Enrolment Act those resulting from
the Yew York riots are not, however, included
in this statement, as they are more properly
attributable to other causes and other persons
than the draft or the officers of this Bureau
am very respectfully, your obedient servant
JAMES B. FRY.
Provost Marshal General
HoN. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War.