Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1864-10-25
The Weakness of our Armies Explained.
LETTER FROM SENATOR HILL-THE NEW REGISTRATION.
James T. NcO0rnicb, asst. Enrolling Officer Of
Iroup County:

LAGRANGE, Ga, October B. 1854.
DEAR SR:-In answer to your inquiries, will
make a statement of facts and reasons in explans-
ton of the late order requiring registration and
re-enroment of all persons between the ages OF
seventeen and fifty years.
BY the laws Of Congress, all persons between
those ages declared to be in the military SER
vice of the Confederate States. Those between
eighteen and forty five are enrolled for service in
the field, and those between seventeen and eighteen
and forty five and fifty, form reserve corps TO dis
charge the various duties connected with the service
in the field.
But the plain fact is ascertained to be that not
more onethird of the fit for duty, between the
ages of eighteen and forty five actually present
with the armies in the field. Where are the two
thirds What excuse have they for being away?
By whose permission and for what reason are they
permitted to stay away? To get these men to the
field and to ascertain and expose and remedy the
various frauds by which they have thus far been
allowed to remain away from duty, form the pur-
pose of the order which you now called on to
execute. If this order shall be faithfully executed
our armies will be replenished, the enemy will be
defeated and country recovered from their pus-
Session. If this order shall not be Faithfully execu
ted then the whole machinery of what is called the
CONSUMPTION Bureau is shown to be failure, and
those engaged in administering it ought themselves
to be ordered at once to The field.
Gen. Grant writes home that our material for
the army Is eAnauSleu tnaL our only TellauCc uO"
is children and old men, aud for this reason he begs
the people of the North to submit to the draft and
press US little longer, and we cannot but fail.
Ills statement is not true We do have the men
between the ages of eighteen and forty to whip
this fight and that speedily, if they can be brought
to duty. But two-thirds of these men absent
This startling fact is enough to make every old man
and woman IN the land turn voluntary enrolling Of
fccr.
Your first duty is to register every white male
between the ages specified in your orders. Mark
the language: Every one, it matters not what his
age, position business. Register the man and
his excuse If the excuse be good, the man is not
harmed and If it he bad the man must be sent to
duty, and the method by which he has heretofore
evaded duty must be exposed and its author pun
iShed.
There are msnv absent from all our armies, who
have furlOughs OF leaves of absence which are rot
legal or proper. Many are granted by subordinate
oti :ers especially to their relations and avorites
who have no authority to grant them. Many are
granted by the proper authority, upon untrue rep
reservations, for reasons that have ceased to ex
iSt, and many are forged
Many have been detailed for some light duty,
while sick slightly wounded, who stl remain
away under cover Of such details long after health
has been restored UT the wounds have healed. In
ali cases details and exemptions end when the rea-
for granting them Cease. Never cease your
Inquiries where paper IL shown & antDg detail
or exemption, but know whether the reason for
granting true and continues to exist
Many have applied for exemptions and details,
ard received furious hS which renewed from
time to time until the applications shall De finally
dttermtGeI Some OF these employ lawyers (ialsely
called, Who If they do not get the 6nal order
desired can, at least, delay final action-the fee
often being measured by the length OF the delay
Thus an unSranted application Is aaie practically 10
operate Is 4 discharge from service.
Some persons are still carrying Did Commissions
where their Offices have ccas.i, bat the COMMISSIONS
have not been surrender ed or cancelled.
Many are showing contracts in every conceivable
Shape-many OF them spurlouS-aud upon them
claiming exemptions Or details No contract what
ever with the sovernnont entides li-n, per scot
exemption OF detail. The contractor must snow
the order from the War Office for his detail or ex
emptiOn, and that the Secretary Of War himself
cannot grant except upon The certificate Of the cuIvf
of the bureau that the personal attention OF tie
contractor is Indispensable to the proper execution
of the contract
Many have certificates from some bureau or IN
der otfcer of bureau, stating that the bearer is
appointed to do some duty or II Ike some indefinite
investigation. | saw one some time since stating
that the bearer was appointed to examine for iron
and copper deposits in certain counties where such
deposits were never suspected to exist; and where
il "xhaus'less quantities did exist the bearer would
never find them. All such appointments with
out authority
Many arc clerks, agents and employees CT Omar.
tcrmasters, Ccnmlssaries and other officers. No
such cticcr has the right to appoint any his
agent, clerk or employee, in any capacity, who is
between the ages of eighteen and forty -f7e unless
such man he disabled from service in the field.
Mark the word-not srk or wounded-but disabled.
Many are acting proves: marsha!s and guards,
agents and employees Of provost maIshals, in our
interior towns. No such officer is authorized by
law, and no power, not even the President, Secru-
tary of War, or Commanding General of an army,
ha q n Sich an nj 10
lines Of the army, and all such, with their numer-
GUS retinue are illegally away from their commands.
Tho same remPrks apply to military commanGants
away from the army.
The number who have surgeons certificates ofiil
health in their pockets ard NATURES certificate of
good health in their persons, the truth Of the latter
being confirmed by the patients daily habits,
beyond estimation. When you fad snch | think
you ought in charity, to assume that the health
mas been restored since the certificate was givea.
desire, in this connection, to state two facts Of
tAe truth of both of which have no doubt. The
first is that the great portion of these abSenteeS
ensbled to remain away from duty by ineficiency or
intentional negligence Ito no harSher tcrm,) of
enrolling and medical officers and their assist
ants The second is that while thus content in
many cases, they have been in other eases, if to
satisfy conscience, cruelty and numerically oppres-
sive. There is excuse for either fault. InStan-
have been reported to me of enroling. officers
and medical boards advising and directing applicants
for exemptions, details, etc, to GO to lawyers of
their naming to make out their applications and
appeals. Those who complied and paid we'll found
easy treatment those who declined found treatment
not so easy. | state broadly, that it never was in
tended that honest applicants of this kind should
need lawyers, and they never can need thom when
officers do their duty.
IL is also said that about ten thousand men kept
at home in Georgia protected by militia commissions
and by certificates that they are necessary to the
,;niOt Nf fbo II Co.
that protected thus with contracts furnish
wood to railroads. am not disposed to credit those
statements but if the enrolling officers now do their
duty we shall soon know the number of men at homo
AID the various reasons for it.
Il has been said also that the newspaper Offices