surgeons' reports PENNSYLVANIA TWEl.Pril DISTRICT. 325 



of that nativity, f()iril)l.v icsiistwl the otliccis in tailing the eiiroiliii^nt in 1863. For this reason, 

 we were compelled to resort to the poll list and company jjay-rolls in order to obtain any 

 enrollment whatever. By this means, the officers were unable to designate the particular settle- 

 ment or i)art of the township in which the men resided. In the draft made in July, 1SC4, there 

 were live hundred and seventy nine names drawn from this township. It consumed one day atrer 

 the drawing to prepare the notices, and one day for the deputy selected for the purpose to reach 

 llazleton from these head(iuarters by private conveyance. He then had but eight days to fill the 

 requi;ements of the law, and had the inhabitants all been loyal and anxious to forward the interests 

 of the Government by giving the necessary information, the time would have been too short to 

 deliver that number of notices. But here, where the inhabitants are almost universally opposed to 

 the Government, and not oidy refuse to give information as to the residence of drafted men, but 

 unite in assailing the officers with stones and clubs to drive them away, it is simply a tar(;e to 

 undertake the task. Hazleton is but one of many !o(!alities in this district where it is impossible to 

 meet the requirements of this section of the law. 



The only possible means of notilyiiig this class is by public lnind-l)ills posted extensively 

 through these districts, and the law would be much more effective were this made the lawful means 

 of notification. The employes of this office have arrested a large number of drafted men who failed 

 to report, and they have been forwarded from this office to the general rendezvous at Philadelphia, 

 and there arraigned, before a com t-mai tial. Many of these have claimed that they were never noti- 

 fied, and iu almost every instance of the kind they have been acquitted and discharged by the court 

 for the want of evidence that they had received their notices within ten days after being drafted. 



If the situation ot the country should ever require another draft, and it should be thought best 

 by our law-nuikers to retain this section of the law, I would respectfully recommend that another 

 section exempting all persons of Irish nativity be added, as a means of curtailing the expenses of 

 the Government. These men knew that they were dratted, and only failed to receive their notices 

 through the united efforts of the people of their neighborhood in opposing the officers who were 

 using their every 'effort night and day to accomplish the requirements of the law. Now, if the law 

 recognizes them as a i)art of the militia of the country, that law should be so regulated as to make 

 itself effective. 



Section 14 of the act approved March 3, 1865, provides that all persons mustered into the 

 service as volunteers or substitutes shall be credited to the ward or township in which they actually 

 reside. This secti'jn has acted unfavorably iu this district. The euTollmentlaw, as a whole, has 

 been successful in fuinishing men only so far as the prospect of a draft has stimulated volunteering. 

 It has been the custom of the loyal portions of the district, when a call has been made for men, to 

 offer local bounties for volunteers to fill their respective quotas. By this means, a large number of 

 mea have been added to the service. Loyal men of families in limited circumstances, whose mis- 

 fortune it has been to have a residence in a disloyal district, have, iu this manner, been enabled to 

 enter the .service to the credit of some loyal district, leaving with their families the bounties they 

 have received as a meaus of supi)ort. But the larger class of men mustered from these disloyal 

 districts have been men u|)on whom the Government had no lawful claini, as they were not liable 

 to draft, either on account of alienage or by being under the age of twenty years. These were all 

 well qualified physically for the military service, and have undoubtedly rendered good service since 

 they were mustered, but they were induced to enter the service only by the local bounties offered. 

 The district in which these men actuall^> had their residence would neither otfer a bounty for volun- 

 teers nor allow a drafted man to enter the service if it was in their pow'er to prevent it. A compar- 

 ison of the results of the operations of this office for the last two years in a loyal and a disloyal 

 district will give an idea of the workings of the law. 



Hazleton Township, with an enrollment of over fifteen hundred names, (all of whom have been 

 dratted,) has secured one hundred and lorty-one credits, the most of which were three-hundred- 

 dollar commutations paid by drafted men. The north ward of Scranton, with an enrollment of 

 eight hundred and seventy-three names, turnished by draft in 1863, fifty-six credits, mostly 'jy three- 

 hiindred-doUar commutations. Since that time they have filled their quotas under every call, and 

 have thus turnished actuidly four hundred and twenty-five men, at an expense of not less than one 

 liuiuhcd and sixty thousand dollars. At tlie time this section became the law, we were busily 



