The Portland daily press., 1863-06-11
WASHINGTON Items,

WASHINGTON, June ~.
The intelligence from Fredericksburg, by
the arrivals last night, is that all is quiet. No
more of our troops have crossed over. Itwould
be impossible to tell what our troops are do
ing, but the enemy was at work on entrench-
ments at the end of the woods skirting the
plain. There was picket firing in that quarter,
but nothing more serious had taken place.
The following official order have been pro-
mulgated:
War Depdrtment-0Gce Prorost Marshal
General, june 9: The following opinion of
Hon. w. Whiting, Solicitor of the War De-
partment, has been ordered to be published by
the Secretary of War: The national forces
liable to perform military duty, includes all
able bodied male citizens of the United States,
and persons of foreign birth who have dcclar-
ed their intention to become citizens, accord
ing to law, between twenty and forty-fve
years of age. Certain persons are exempted
and divided into eight classes. No person but
such as are exempted, shall be exempt
SEC. 2. 1t is declared the duty of enrolling
officers to enroll all persons subject to mill
tary duty. SEC. 8. All persons thus enrolled
Shall be subject for two years after July LIST
succeeding the enrolment to be called into
military service. SEC. IL. The national
forces not now in military service, enrolled
under the act, shall be devided into two class
es, &c. SEC. B. Those of the second class
class shall have been exhausted.
Thus it seems, by the true construction of
this act, while all persons coming within its
provisions, are to be enrolled in the nation
al forces nevertheless under the first en-
rollment, those who were in military service
at the time the act went into effect, are not
to be included in that class which is subject
to the first draft.
Several provisions of this statute, are incon-
stan vii ida, hat hon ;,,t l,a
service, were to be treated as liable to the
draft from the first class. Thus it is provided
in the It'll Section, that regulars, volunteers,
militia men or persons 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 service and those who were
to be drafted in the same distinction of those
who were in the service and those who were
to be drafted in, is recognized in Section Is,
which provides bountieslto those who, being
then in the service, should volunteer to rein
list.
The statute providing for classification of
troops from which the drafts are to be made,
enacts as follows:
SEC. 3. That the national forces of the
= Hlteu suites, not now III military service,
enrolled under this act, shall be divided into
two classes, those who are now-that is to
say, on March 3, 1S63-in military service, are
not to be included in either of these classes,
and those then March 3, 1861 in the service,
were not included in either of these two class
es. These may be said to constitute a class of
persons to be enrolled under the provisions OF
this act, as between the first and second class
of the law
Section Sd requires that the I'd class shall
not in any district be called into the service
of the United States until those of the 1st
class shall have been thus called in. Volun-
teers or regulars, who had been in service, and
who had been discharged therefrom or had re-
signed prior to the Sd of March, 1863 are
liable to be drafted in the same manner as if
they had never been in service. No regard is
TO be paid to their former period of service or
to the length or brevity of the period between
the date of discharge and that of the draft.
Volunteers who were in the service of the
United States on the Sd of March, 1868, and
have since that time been discharged, are not
included in the first class from which the lrst
draft is intended to be made, and are, there
fore, not liable TO be called on by the draft
which is to be made from that class of forces
of the United States under the provisions of
this act.
tSigned) WIN. WHITING,
Solicitor of War Department.
JAS. b. Fry, Provost Marshal Gen.