surgeons' REPOKIS PENNSYLVANIA TWELFTH DLSTRICT. 321 



beiiij? drafted, could not tor the saiiu' reiisons he exeiiiptcsd. This was considered by the people very 

 unjust. Poor men with large families dependent on their labor for support, who could ill allord to 

 be drafted, and to leave their wives and children destitute of the necessaries of life, would, prompted 

 by feelings of i)atri()tisin as well as a desire to make souk^ provision for their families, eagerly 

 accept the liberal oft'ers from a local district in the shape of a bounty, and jjresent themselves iu 

 good liiith as candidates for enlistment. Some cause existing for which the instructions from the 

 War Department for the guidance of surgeons in this business prohil)its me from aitcepting them 

 as volunteers, and still would not authorize me to exempt them if dralted, I was obliged to reject 

 them in one case, and to hold them iu the other. 



Otiiei's, who were drafted and claimed exemption for some disability which would not, ac- 

 cording to my instructions, exempt them from draft, were compelled to commutt^ or furnish substi- 

 tutes, and afterward, desiring to enter the service as volunteers in order to ledeem some of their 

 pecuniary loss, could not, for the same cause then existing, be accepted by the board. This created 

 a bitter feeling among the people against the board and the Government Persons argued that if 

 a man was lit to perform military service as a drafted man, he should naturally be qualilied to serve 

 in the same capacity as a volunteer; that if a man desiring to volunteer could not become a soldier 

 because he had lost his left eye or was near-sighted, he could not reasonal)ly become one as a 

 drafted man. Thus many poor men could not become soldiers when an opportunity offeied by 

 which to make some provision for their families, but were afterward compelled to enter tiie Army 

 as drafted men without any pecuniary advantage. * * * 



O. IT. nUMPIlREV, 

 SiDUjcoH Hoard of EnroHinetil Eleventh Distriat of Pcniisijlcaniii. 



Easton, Pa., June 15, lS(i5. 



PENNSYLVANIA— TWELFTH DISTRICT. 

 Extracts f mm report of Dr. 11. P. MoouY. 



* * * I entered upon my duties as surgeon of the board ot enrollment of the. 

 twelfth district of Pennsylvania on the 27th day of May, 18G3, and have been on duty ('ontinuously 

 from that time until the present. Our records show seven tliousand one hundred and tifty- three 

 physical examinations. 



* * * This district is composed of the counties of Luzerne and Sus(piehanna, and, 

 as the geograi)hy as well as the habits of the peoi>le are different in the two (u)unties, it is neces- 

 sary to consider them separately. 



Luzerne County covers an area of about two thousand square miles, and in 1800 had a popula- 

 tion of alittle over ninety thousand. It [)resents a surface of great diversity. A portion equals the 

 most barren and uneven of any in tlie State, while other parts eiiual the most beautitid and fertile. 

 The most important streams which course through the county are the Susquehanna and Lackawanna 

 Rivers. The Susquehanna enters the county on the north at a point about midway between the 

 eastern and western boundaries, and runs in a southwesterly direction a distance of about fifty-five 

 miles, to where it rea(!hesColumbia County. Along this entire route, it is bordered by beautiful valleys 

 upon either side, of I'roui one to eighteen miles in length. One of these, the Wyoming Valley, has 

 become historical as the scene of the terrible Indian massacre in 1778. It extends from Pittston to 

 Nanticoke, a distance of eighteen miles, ranging from one to five miles in width, and is not sur- 

 passed in beauty or fertility by any valley iu the country. 



The soil is owned principally by descendants of the early settlers, who are enjoying the 

 blessings achieved for them by their fathers. Beneath are endless fields of coal, which are leased 

 to comi)anies who are engaged in mining the coal. These mines have attracted to the valley thou 

 sands of nieu of foreign birth, who earn their liveliliood by working in them. 



The Lackawanna River enters the county at its northeast corner, at which point it is but an 

 insignificant stream. Its course is diagonal through the northern portion of the county, and being 

 fed by numerous springs and small streams, when it reaches the Susquehanna, at Pittston, after 

 41 



