The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1866-06-07

| polite provision. Prominent IN Importance
among the enactments in reference to the
| employment Of substitutes, is the fourth
section of the Amendatory Act approved
| February "a. 1864. In accordance with
its provisions, scores of men have been
added to our armies in times of their
greatest depletion, who have gone as sub
stitutes for enrolled men previous to draft,
and whose principals have never been
drafted.
VOLUNTEERS.
The means employed to procure volun-
teers were principally of pecuniary ma
tpre, accompanied most generally by the
apprekensions of conscription. In the
early part of 1864, the Governments Of
fered premium in money to such per
sons as should present either veteran or
new recruits who upon examination should
be accepted and mustered into the service.
This incentive to volunteering, or rather
the procurement Of volunteers, had very
good effect, and was the means of fur
nishing to our armies many Of the very
best quality of soldiers.
The great inGucement, however, TO men
entering the service as volunteers was that
of bounty. In addition to the monthly
pay of the soldier, and the very liberal
bounty offered him by the Government,
nearly every sub-district increased this
amount by local taxation or subscription,
until it reached a sum not little tempt
ing to a great majority of the people, and
much above that which many of them
might hope to possess through the ordin-
ary avenues of labor. The prospects of
obtaining a little fortune In this way, even
at the risk of life In the service, was more
pleasing for the poor man to contemplate
than the idea of being drafted and forced
to incur these perils without any pecunia-
ry compensation, and with perhaps the
additional regret of being hurried from a
family Who were destitute of the necessa-
ries of life or OF the means of procuring
them.
When the var had been raging for two
or three years, that impulsive patriotism
which was SO prevalent at its commence
ment, and which told SO plainly how little
of It's desolations and suferiugs We then
comprehended, had settled down in the
mind of the nation to stern resolve and
cold calculation. Motive, that potent
| agent in the affairs of men, became more
, apparent in every movement Of the people,
and while their purpose to suppress the
| rebellion was no less fixed and unalterablc
, now than at first, they yet demanded that
reason and judgment should no longer be
sacrificed to impulse.
They deplored the existence of war and
the suffering it entailed, but while sensi-
tive TO these, they felt it not inconsistent
with duty and the puress patriotism to
accept the pecuniary compensation prof
fered them by the national and municipal
authorities, as an equivalent for the perils
they were likely to incur in entering the
army. Thus the bounties became in
course Of time, and as the war progressed, +,
much more important consideration in
the minds of volunteers; aud it was through
this means, perhaps, more than any other,
that men were induced to enter the service
in this capacity.
The manner Of examining volunteers
by the Surgeon was the same precisely as
that prsctised in the examination Of draf-
ted men and substitutes, with perhaps the
single exception that it was mote rigid
than the former and less SO than the
latter.
The enlistment of volunteers was most
generally done by persons whom the Gov
ernor Of the State had commissioned
recruiting officers. Under nearly if not
all the calls for men made by the Presi-
dent of the United States, the different
State Executives were permitted to raise
part or the whole OF the force levied up-
on them, by formin new organizations. In
this case, volunteering was much more
rapid and active than when the recruits
were compelled TO enter :eteran compa-
.nies and regiments in which, most likely,
the officers would be unknown to them,
and where they imagined often that they
would not be treated with impartiality.
When men had been enlisted by these
recruiting officers, they were brought to
these headquarters, subjected to careful
physical examination. and if found quail
fed to endure the life and perform the
duties of the soldier, they were mustered
into the service, either singly or in squads,
by administering to them with upEfted
hand the accustomed oath.
The recruit having entered the service
of the United States and received the
clothing to which he was entitled, the
manner of providing for him was exactly
the same whether he be a volunteer,
drafted man or substitute and as this
has already been noticed in the case of
the second of these classes, | shall not
revert to it again in this connection.
The manner of forwarding and credit
ing this class of recruits differs from those
/ already spoken of only in the unimportant
! item of some entries on their descriptive
! rolls In the column of "remarks,' that