362 



ENROLMENT AND DRAFT. 



two or more sons of aged or infirm parents subject to 

 draft, the father, or, if he be dead, the mother may 

 elect which son shall be exempt. Fifth, the only 

 brother of children not twelve years old, having 

 neither father nor mother, dependent upon his labor 

 for support. Sixth, the father of motherless children 

 under twelve years of age dependent upon bia labor 

 for support. Seventh, where there are a father and 

 sons in the same family and household, and two of 

 them are in the military service of the United States as 

 non-commissioned officers, musicians, or privates, the 

 residue of such family and household, not exceeding 

 two, shall be exempt. And no person but such as 

 herein excepted shall be exempt : Provided, however, 

 That no person who has been convicted of any felony 

 shall be enrolled or permitted to serve in said forces. 



The enrolling officers wfere directed to enrol 

 all able-bodied persons within the prescribed 

 ages. They were to judge of age by the best 

 evidence they could obtain. They were also 

 required to make two classes in their returns ; 

 the first embracing all between twenty and 

 thirty-five years, and the second, all between 

 thirty-five and forty-five years. The enroll- 

 ing officer was not expected to exercise his. 

 judgment under the exceptions. He was 

 not authorized to omit any one between the 

 ages of eighteen and forty-five. It was the 

 object of the provost-marshal-general, on put- 

 ting this vast organization in force, to ascer- 

 tain how many men liable to military duty 

 there were on the 1st of July in the United 

 States, and to provide the means to establish 

 between the Government and each district an 

 account of military service, in which a charge 

 should be made of all that was due, and credit 

 given for all that was or should be paid. The 

 enrolment was commenced about the 25th of 

 May. It proceeded -rapidly in all the States 

 except Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ore- 

 gon, and California. In these States the delay 

 was caused by a difficulty in selecting the nec- 

 essary officers. Questions of alienage, physi- 

 cal disability, &c., &c., were left to be decided 

 by the enrolling boards. This caused imperfec- 

 tions in the lists or returns. It was stated by 

 Col. Fry, that the opposition encountered in 

 making the enrolment " could not be said to be 

 serious. Some of the officers were maltreated, 

 and one or two assassinated, but prompt action 

 on the part of the civil authorities, aided 

 when necessary by military patrols, effected the 

 arrest of guilty parties, and checked these out- 

 rages." In some of the mining districts of 

 Pennsylvania organized bodies of miners for a 

 time opposed the enrolment. Persons arrested 

 for obstructing the officers were turned over to 

 the civil authorities for trial. 



The following was issued as an order relative 

 to the enrolment from the provost-marshal- 

 general : 



"WAR DEPARTMENT, PROVOST-MARSHAI-GENERAL'S ) 

 OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., June Mft, 1863. \ 



The following opinion of the Solicitor of the War 

 Department, has been ordered to be published by the 

 Secretary of War: 



Opinion. It is made the duty of provost-marshals 

 to obey all lawful orders and regulations of the pro- 

 vost-marshal-general, and such as shall be prescribed 

 by law, concerning the enrolment and calling into ser- 



vice of the national forces, act of March 3d, 1863, sec- 

 tion 7. The 25th section of the same act provides that 

 if any person shall resist any draft of men enrolled un- 

 der this act, into the service of the United States, or 

 shall counsel or aid any person to resist any such 

 draft, or shall assault or obstruct any officer in making 

 such draft, or in the performance of any service in re- 

 lation thereto, or shall counsel any person to assault 

 or obstruct any such officer, or shall counsel any draft- 

 ed man not to appear at the place of rendezvous, or 

 wilfully persuade liim from the performance of mili- 

 tary duty as required by law, such persons shall be 

 subject to summary arrest by the provost-marshal and 

 shall be forthwith delivered to the civil authorities, 

 and upon conviction thereof be punished by a fine not 

 exceeding $500 or by imprisonment not exceeding two 

 years, or by both of said punishments. To do any act 

 which will prevent or impede the enrolment of the na- 

 tional forces,wbich enrolment is preliminary and essen- 

 tial to the draft, is to prevent and impede the draft 

 itself. The enrolment is a service to be perform- 

 ed by the provost-marshal in relation to the draft. 

 It is not the act of drawing ballots out of a ballot-box 

 itself, but it is in relation to it, and is the first step 

 that must by law be taken preparatory to the draft, ft 

 is therefore clearly within the duty 'of the provost- 

 marshal to subject all persons who obstruct the en- 

 rolment, the meeting of the board, or any other pro- 

 ceeding which is preliminary and essential to the 

 draft, to summary arrest according to the provisions 

 of section 25. 



There are many ways of obstructing officers in the 

 discharge of their services or duties in making or 

 in relation to the draft, without employing physical 

 force. The neglect or refusal to do an act required by 

 law to be done may itself be such an obstruction as to 

 subject the offender to arrest. Suppose a person be 

 found standing in a passage through which the draft- 

 ing officers are required to enter into a place designa- 

 ted by law as the'place for the draft, and suppose that 

 his standing in that place would prevent access by 

 those officers to the place of the draft, if they request 

 him to move away and he neglects or refuses to do so 

 for the purpose of preventing the draft, the non-per- 

 formance of the act of removal would be of itself an 

 obstruction of the draft or of an officer in the perform- 

 ance of his duty in relation to it. Standing mute in 

 civil courts is, under certain circumstances, a punishr 

 able offence. And so if a person with intent to prevent 

 the draft refuses to give his true name, when lawfully 

 requested so to do, oy any officer whose legal duty it 

 is to ascertain and enrol, it is an obstruction of that 

 officer in the performance of one of his duties in rela- 

 tion to the draft. So, also, is the giving of false names 

 with the same illegal intent, and the offender will in 

 either case be subject to summary arrest by the pro- 

 vost-marshal. WILLIAM WHITING, 

 Solicitor of the War Department 



JAMES B. FKY, Provost-Marshal-General. 



In preparing the accounts with district 

 much difficulty existed in equalizing between 

 them the number of troops which had been 

 furnished and those to be furnished. The 

 quotas tinder which troops had been raised in 

 1861 and 1862 were based upon population and, 

 without reference to equalizing the numbers 

 called for among districts or towns. In raising 

 those volunteers much reliance had been placed 

 upon the enterprise of individuals. Certain 

 localities, by offering bounties and adopting 

 other means to stimulate enlistments, drew 

 many of their own quota from the people of 

 other places. Every new call for troops was 

 also independent of the one which had preced- 

 ed it. The number of men which each State 

 had furnished at any given date could be as- 



