Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-04-18
Ten Thousand Men from California.

We have to-day positive statement by
telegraph that ten regiments are at once to
4 be raised in this State. Ten regiments of
the maximum standard will amount to
ten thousand men. At the last election
there were little over 100000 votes cast
in the State, so that only about one III
every ten of our male population will be
called upon to enter the army. The voting
population of San Francisco numbers
about $4,000, so that our quota will be
about ! 400 men, or regiment and half.
That there will be no necessity for a
draft to raise this force we are satisfied.
The people of California have responded
with such alacrity to every demand made
upon them by the General Government
that no difficulty will be experienced in
putting in the field the little army for
which a requisition is now about to be
made upon US; the more especially, as
that army will, in all probability, be never
employed for any other purpose but our
defence. The Government does not want
men on the other side. The dispatches
which convey the intelligence that ten
regiments are to be raised here, also inform
us that soldiers are now offering in the
Eastern States in such numbers that the
Government is barely able to equip them
and that therefore the indications are that
draft will not be necessary. In any
event, to draw men from this State to
fight on the other side of the continent,
with the possibility of foreign war hang
ing over the nation, would neither be wise
nor prudent.
The bounties and pay which a soldier
can obtain in California are greater than
in any other State of the Union, and far
greater than soldiers ever received in any
age or country before this rebellion broke
out. The pay of private soldier is now
Sl3 per month. A bill is now before
Congress to increase the pay to SIS. If
this bill should pass, private soldier in
California will receive $lS per month
from the Government, in "greenbacks,"
and in addition to that sum, 50 per month
from the State of California, making the
pay equal, at the present rates Of gold, to
about 1927 in Government currency. In
| addition to this monthly stipend, the
General Government pays bounty Of
duOuL .Sfuu " CNcil NOIuitSSi, hAid thS
State of California, in accordance with
the provisions of bill passed by the last
Legislature, will pay him in addition
$l6O in coin. and if he be discharged
veteran, 5000. We have here a total
bounty, then, in the case of volunteers, of
$56O-part greenbacks and part coin, and,
for veterans, of 500.
Under these circumstances it is possible
that very little trouble will be experienced
in raising the 10000 troops which the
Government is about to call upon us to
organize for our own defense. If the re-
quired number should not be ready at the
time upon which the Government may fix,
a draft will, We presume, be ordered, and
then no bounties will be paid either by
the General Government or by the State.
The California soldier will, in that event,
get his $l3 or SlS per month, as the case
may be, from General Government, and
no more. Those who cannot 60 the wars
can purchase an exemption with $500 in
Government currency.-AHa, lltu.