II IXTRODUCTORY. 



been mainly directed to the formation of the Veteran Reserve Corps, or rather to the 

 examination of soldiers in hospital, who, b)^ reason of wonnds or disease, were unfit 

 for active service in the field, but Avho were able to perform lighter duty in the Veteran 

 Reserve Corps. 



The loose manner in which iiiedical examinations had been performed when 

 recruitment was under control of the several State authorities demanded a radical 

 reform in that direction ; for it had been fully demonstrated that the placing of men in 

 the field who wei-e physically disqualified for performing the duties and enduring the . 

 hardships incident to the life of a soldier was not only poor economy but fatal to the 

 successful prosecution of military operations. The requirements of the service 

 demanded that the medical examiner should possess not only a high order of medical 

 talent, but that he must combine with it a thorough knowledge of human nature and 

 a strict moral integrity. He was expected to ju^dge of the physical and mental capacity 

 of men under the most diverse circumstances. He must be able to detect a defect in 

 the volunteer or the substitute, who was to receive a large bounty in case of acceptance, 

 and who sought to conceal disqualifying defects ; and he must also be able to discrimi- 

 nate between the assumed and the real disability of the drafted man, who, by exaggerating 

 existing disabilities or feigning those which did not exist, strove to be exempted ; he 

 must pursue a strict line of duty, and mete out even justice, being responsible to the 

 whole country on the one hand that its claims upon its citizens were enforced, and on 

 the other hand to the conscript, who was perhaps forced into the Army away from a 

 family that depended on him for support. If his humanity, in such cases, preponderated 

 his sense of duty to the country, and caused him to reject or exempt men for small 

 disability, he was accused of being too lenient and of subjecting other men to the 

 chances of another draft ; and if a strict sense of duty compelled him to hold for 

 service men vvho were in the smallest degree disabled, he was accused of forcing 

 cripples and invalids into the Army. To the credit of the medical profession, it may 

 be said that, notwithstanding all these embarrassments and diificidties, physicians of 

 repute willingly undertook the duties, even at a pecuniary disadvantage, and have not 

 only earned from me as chief medical officer of the Bureau a grateful acknowledg- 

 ment of their services, but are entitled to the gratitude of their countrymen. It is 

 from their records and reports that the statistical tables of this work have been com- 

 piled, and to them I am indebted for another valuable portion of the work, which, 

 with introductory remarks, constitutes Part III. 



During the existence of the Provost-Marshal-General's Bureau, four di'afts were 

 made. The first, the draft of 1863, furnished records of the examination of 252,843 

 men ; under the second, which was made under the call of March 14, 1864, 84,486 

 examinations were recorded ; the third, made under the call of July 1 8, 1864, furnished 

 records of 163,122 examinations ; and the fourth, made under the call of December 19, 

 1864, furnished records of the examination of 104,594, making the total number of 

 drafted men examined 605,045. The number exempted under each draft was : under the 

 first, 80, 131 ; under the second, 20,848 ; under the tliird, 40,711 ; and under the fourth, 

 14,040; making a total of 155,730, or a ratio of 257.39 per thousand exempted out of 

 the 605,045 examined. During the same period there were examined 225,639 volun- 

 teers and 79,96H substitutes. Of the former, 50,008, or a ratio of 221.63, and of the 



