Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1866-05-17
The Federal Army.

The report just made by the Provost
Marshal General of the United States, of
the details and operations of the Federal
couscript laws during the late civil war, is
an exceedingly interesting paper. During
the first eighteen months of the war, the
Federal Government relied for recruits upon
the enthusiasm which sent so many thous'
auds to the field as soon as Fort Sumter
fell, and the Conscript Bureau was not es.
tablshed until the early part of 1868. At
that time the military ardor of the North
was DO longer at fever heat, and four hun.
dred thousand additional troops were re-
quired for offensive military operations.-
Few, if any volunteered, and thousands
we're deserting the service as the terrible
disasters of 1868 we're followed by long
period of inactivity upon the part of the
Federal armies.
The insuficiency of the system of re-
cruitment previously purmed had been de-
monstrated, and the army was diminishing
by the ordinary casualties of war, but more
rapidly by the expiration of the terms for
which the troops we're engaged to serve.-
The General Government, through this
Bureau, assumed direct control of the bust
ness which had heretofore been transacted
mainly by the State Governments. The
Provost Marshals of the several Congress
sioual Districts, aided by a Commissioner
and Surgeon in each, we're recruiting off,
GERS. Springing directly from the people,
and at the same time exercising the author.
ity and representing the necessities and
wishes of the Government, they reached
the masses and were able, without abating
the requirements of the CONSUMPTION, to
promote volunteering, and to examine, en-
list, muster, clothe and forward recruits, as
fast as they could be obtained. Thequotas
of districts and sub districts we're made
known. Each locality was advised of the
number it was required to furnish, and, in
the event of failure, then the draft would
follow.
The report of the Provost Marshal Gen.
eral, which has just beea sent into the Sen
ate aud ordered to be printed, shows that
the aggregate number of men capable of
performing military service in the Federal
armies during the late war was 3,254, ,579,
and of this number 1,0O0,6l6 we're in ser.
vice and fit for duty when the war ended.
The Confederate force in the field at that
time, could not have exceeded one hundred
and thirty thousand men of all arms. The
statistics of this report are exceedingly in.
teresting, and we present the following con-
deused summary of the most important of
these statistics:
"One million one hundred and twenty
thousand six hundred and twenty.one men
we're raised, at an average cost Con account
of recruitment, exclusive of bounties) OF
SO. "a per man, while the cost of recruiting
of 1865 raised prior to the organlza-
tion of the Bureau was s34.01 per man.
"Seventy six thousand FIVE hundred and
twenty-six deserters were arrested and re-
turned to the army.
"The quotas of men furnished by the
various parts of the country were equalized,
and proportionate share of military SER
vice secured from each, thus removing the
very serious inequality of recruitment which
had arisen during the first two years of the
war, and which, when the Bureau was or
gauized, had become an almost insuperable
obstacle to the further progress of raising
troops.
"Recoris were completed showing min
utely the physical condition of l,O14,776
of the men examined, and tables Of great
and professional value have been
from this data.
"The casualties in the entire military
force of the nation during the war, as shown
by the official muster rolls and monthly re.