ARMY, UNITED STATES. 



35 



mour, of Xew York, was among those who de- 

 clined to act in the matter. In the opinion of 

 military men the new plan of recruitment 

 within the lines of military operations, was ob- 

 jectionable ; and commanding generals held it 

 in particular disfavor on account of the oppor- 

 tunities it would afford for reckless and inju- 

 rious competition among State agents, and for 

 the infraction of sound military rules. The 

 following letter from Gen. Sherman to one of 

 the Massachusetts agents, doubtless expresses 

 the views of a large class of officers : 



HEADQ'ES MILITARY Dmsiox OF THE MISSISSIPPI. ) 



Ix THE FIELD, XEAE ATLANTA, GEOKGIA. V 



July 30th, 1864. J 



Jo/in A. Spooner, Esq., Agent for the Commonwealth 

 of Massachmettf, '!\,in. 



SIH : Yours from Chattanooga, July 28, is received, 

 notifying me of your appointment by your State as 

 Lieutenant-Colonel and Provost Marshal of Georgia, 

 Alabama, and Mississippi, under the act of Congress 

 approved July 4, 1864, to recruit volunteers to be 

 credited to the States respectively. 



On applying to Gen. Webster at Nashville, he will 

 grant you a pass through our lines to those States, and, 

 as I have had considerable experience in those States, 

 would suggest recruiting depots to be established at 

 Macon and Columbus, Miss., Selma, Montgomery, 

 and Mobile, Alabama, and Columbus, MilledgevilTe, 

 and Savannah, Georgia. 



I do not see that the law restricts you to black re- 

 cruits, but you are at liberty to collect white recruits 

 also. It is waste of time and money to open rendez- 

 vous in Northwest Georgia, for I assure you I have 

 not seen an able-bodiedlnan, black or white, there, 

 fit for a soldier, who was not in this army or the one 

 opposed to it. You speak of the impression going 

 abroad that I am opposed to the organization of col- 

 ored regiments. My opinions are usually very posi- 

 tive, and there is no reason why you should not know 

 them. Though entertaining profound reverence for 

 our Congress, I do doubt their wisdom in the passage 

 of this law : 



1st. Because civilian agents about an army are a 

 nuisance. 



2d. The duty of citizens to fight for their country 

 is too sacred a one to be peddled off by buying up 

 the refuse of other States. 



3d. It is unjust to the brave soldiers and volunteers 

 who are fighting as those who compose this army do, 

 to place them on a par with the class of recruits" you 

 are after. 



4th. The negro is in a transition state, and is not 

 the equal of the white man. 



5th. He is liberated from his bondage by act of war , 

 and the armies in the field are entitled "to all his as- 

 sistance in labor and fighting in addition to the prop- 

 er quotas of the States. 



6th. This bidding and bantering for recruits, white 

 and black, has delayed the reenforcement of our ar- 

 mies at the times when such reenforcenients would 

 have enabled us to make our successes permanent. 



Vth. The law is an experiment which, pending war, 

 is unwise and unsafe, and has delayed the universal 

 draft, which I firmly believe will become necessary 

 to overcome the wide-spread resistance offered us ; 

 and I also believe the universal draft will be wise and 

 beneficial ; for under the Providence of God it will 

 separate the sheep from the goats, and demonstrate 

 what citizens will fight for their country, and what 

 will only talk. No one will infer from th'is that I am 

 not a friend of the negro as well as the white race ; I 

 contend that the treason and rebellion of the master 

 freed the slave, and the armies I have commanded 

 nave conducted to safe points more negroes than 

 those of any general officer in the army ; but I prefer 

 negroes for pioneers, teamsters, cooks, and servants, 

 athers gradually to experiment in the art of the sol- 



dier, beginning with the duties of local garrisons, 

 such as we had at Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, 

 Nashville, and Chattanooga ; but I would not draw 

 on the poor race for too large a proportion of its ac- 

 tive, athletic young men, for some must remain to 

 seek new homes and provide for the old and young 

 the feeble and helpless. 



These are some of my peculiar notions, bxit I assure 

 you they are shared "by & large proportion of our 

 fighting men. You may show this to the agents of 

 the other States in the same business as yourself. 



I am, &c., 

 (Signed) W. T. SHERMAN, Maj.-Gen. 



Official copy L. M. DATTOX, Aide-de-Camp. 



The result of the recrnitment in the insur- 

 rectionary States were reported by the Provost 

 Marshal General as on the whole unfavorable, 

 and the system has been practically abolished. 



The necessity of procuring substitutes from a 

 class of the population not liable to draft, led 

 to the enlistment of a large body of recruits of 

 foreign birth, who had never been naturalized. 

 Under these circumstances any considerable 

 increase in the emigration from Europe to 

 America was looked upon with suspicion by 

 foreign governments or statesmen unfriendly 

 to the United States, as having been caused by 

 improper inducements, in violation of municipal 

 law. It was even charged, by persons high in 

 influence in England, that agents from the 

 United States had visited Ireland and the Brit- 

 ish Xorth American provinces, for the purpose 

 of enlisting men in the army, and had de- 

 spatched many recruits to America, ostensibly 

 as mechanics or farm laborer?. By a resolution 

 adopted by the United States Senate, on May 

 24th, the President was requested to state 



If any authority has been given any one, either in 

 this country or elsewhere, to obtain "recruifs in Ire- 

 land and Canada for our army or navy; and whether 

 any such recruits have been obtained, or whether, to 

 the knowledge of the Government, Irishmen or Cana- 

 dians have been induced to emigrate to this country 

 in order to be recruited ; and if so, what measures, if 

 any, have been adopted in order to arrest such con- 

 duct. 



The resolution was referred by the President 

 to the Secretary of State, who replied, that no 

 authority to recruit abroad had been given by 

 the United States Government, and that appli- 

 cations for snch authority had been invariably 

 rejected. The Government had no knowledge, 

 he added, that any such recruits had been ob- 

 tained in the provinces named, or in any foreign 

 country. In two or three instances it had been 

 reported to the State Department that recruit- 

 ing agents had crossed the Canadian frontier 

 without authority, with a view to engage recruits 

 or reclaim deserters. The complaints thus made 

 were immediately investigated ; the proceedings 

 of such recruiting agents were promptly dis- 

 avowed and condemned ; the recruits or desert- 

 ers, if any had been brought into the United 

 States, were at once returned, and the offending 

 agents were dismissed from the public service. 

 With respect to the inducements held out by 

 the Government to emigrants, he observed : 



In the land and naval forces of the United States 

 there are found not only some Canadians, some Eng- 

 lishmen, and some Irishmen, bu> )so many subjects 



