Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1863-11-03
The Operations of the Draft---RepOrt
OF Provost Marshal General Fry.
Provo. MARSHAL GENEaAL's OEFICE,
WAsuTNcror n n Ocf 10


reports up to this time.
The machinery for executing the en-
rollment act is in complete working or
der. The law as it stands cannot be
made to develop the entire military
strength of the nation, and the execution
oft has been rendered exceedingly diff
fcult by the efforts made in various ways
to evade it, or to escape from its opera
ton.
Its fruits, therefore, are not as abun-
dant as they will be from perfect law
and more thoroughly established system
of executing it. All the advantages,
however, which could reasonably have
been expected from the law are aecru-
ing.
Its general principles distribute the
burdens of military service fairly among
those to bear them, but there is perhaps
more generosity than justness in some
of its humane provisions. With certain
notifications, which can easily be made
by Congress, the military strength of the
country may, by the direct and indirect
operation of this act, be surely and
eheaply brought into the field
Several of the Western States have
not been subjected to the present draft
on account of the excess 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,
including the so per cent additional,
over 80 per cent have reported in ac-
cordance with the orders of the board.
Of the 20 per cent who have not report
ed, many are not willful deserters, being
unavoidably absent, at Sea and the like.
The deserters are being arrested.
Of all examined, about 80 per cent
have been examined on account of physi-
cal disability, about 80 per cent have
been exempted under the provisions of
the second section of the act, or found
not liable to military duty on account of
alienage, unsuitableness of age, nom
residents, &c. Those who are not liable
to military duty, and form no part of the
national forces, and therefore have been
enormously enrolled, appear in the gen.
eral reports of the boards among those
exempted, because their non-ability to
serve could not be established until they
came before the boards. The number of
exemptions is thus made to appear much
larger than it really is,
About forty per cent of the men ex-
amined have been held in service, and
have either entered the army in person,
furnished substitutes, or paid commuta-
ton.
About one-half of those held to service
have paid communication; of the remain
der about one-third have gone in person,
and two-thirds have furnished substi-
suites, and all except a few in transit
and small proportion of deserters from
among the earlier substitutes accepted,
are in the ranks of their regiments in
front of the enemy.
1t is fair to suppose that most of those
who willfully 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
%Haeeae Tef Cent The proportion of exemptions
would be still further reduced by purging
the enrolment 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 propositions above given are based
upon 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 entering service, have been dis
charged on soldiers certificates of disa
bility 1t is probable that at least one
half of them were unfit for service when
received 1t may he safely said that
forty millions of money was uselesSly eX-
pended in bringing them into the field,
to say nothing of their subsequent ex-
pense to the Government
In Great Britain, under the system Of
voluntary enlistments, the rejections
average over q per cent In France,
from 1881 TO 1912, the average number
of exemptions annually was 1880, so
that, to secnre the contingent of $4,000
men, ia, 500 conscripts were annually
examined
OF the recruits who presented them
selves for enlistment in our regular army
in 1852, 70 per cent, were rejected for
physical infrmities, exclusive of age OF
stature Between lst of January and
1st July last, more than one-half were re
iected These were men who desired to
be accepted. These proportions are o
interest in connection with the fact tina
one-third of the drafted men who desire
not to be accepted have been exempted
on account of physical unftness.
There have been but few cases of in
competency, fraud, neglect or abuse il
the examination of drafted men, Thes,
men have, however, in many ways beer
swindled by rogues, having no connec
| ton with the boards of enrolment, as
for example, the fact that certain draft
ed men were physically unfit for servic
has become known to these sharpers
when it was perhaps not known to the me-
themselves, but they have SO far imposes
upon the Ignorance or creduilty of tn
drafted men as to get from them sums c
money to secure an exemption to whic
the rogues knew they were entitled an
would surely receive, and the drafte
men finding themselves exempted q
promised, have sometimes thought an
given out that they secured exemption b
bribery of drafting officers, whereas the
were legally entitled to exemption, an
have themselves been swindled by sharl
ers.
All has been done that seemed prop,
under existing laws, to check these evil
and to meet properly the few cases {
criminality and incompetency whic
have occurred among the officers of tn
bureau.
All the expenditures up to this tin
on account of this bureau, including Il
enrolment, draft, and pay of officers al
persons connected with it, are but lit
over S1,200,000. These expenditur
include all made on account of the m
chinery which has produced the ARE
and return of twenty thousand desertel
! The amount of money received fro