[House of Representatives, No. 326.]
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIYES, January 10,1865.—Read
first and second times, made special order after existing special
order, and ordered to be printed.
[By Mr. Goode, from Special Committee on Conscription.
A. BILL
* To be entitled An# Act to regulate the business of Conscription.
1 The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact,
2 That, for the purpose of conducting the business of conscrip-
3 tion, there shall be assigned to each State by the President a
4 General officer, who shall report to the Secretary of War
5 through an Assistant Adjutant General, to be assigned in the
6 office of the Adjutant and Inspector General, to the duty of re-
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7 ceiving returns and reports and issuing all orders in relation
8 to conscription.
1 Sec. 2. All applications for exemption and detail, -except as
2 hereinafter provided, shall be decided by the General officers
3 having charge of the business of conscription in the several
4 States. Appeals may be taken from their decisions to the Sec-
5 retary of War, but during the pepdency of such appeals* th$
6 appellants shall be liable to military service.
1 Sec. 3. There shall be assign^! from the ^nvalid Corps or from
2 ^fficers certified by the proper medical boards
3 bc\ive serfico in the field,A sufficient numb^°^ enrolling offi-
4 eer* who shall report to pmd be n** lmme<^ale direction
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5 and control of the General officers conducting the business of
6 conscription in the several States.
1 Sec. 4. All conscripts shall be examined by the medical boards
2 of the army after, joining the commands in the field to which
3 they may be respectively assigned, and every discharge granted
4 by an army medical board, shall be final and shall relieve the
5 party from all military service in the future, when the disability
6 is permanent and the cause of it is set forth in <he certificate
7 of discharge.
1 Sec. 5. If any conscript shall furnish to the enrolling officer
2 of his county a certificate, under oath, from a respectable physi-
3 cian or from an army surgeon, that he is unable to travel to
4 the command to which he may be assigned without serious
5 predjudice to his health, a furlough shall be granted to him un-
6 til the next meeting of the medical board, hereinafter provi-
7 ded for.
1 Sec. 6. There shall be assigned to each congressional district
2 a medical board, consisting of three army surgeons who, after
3 due notice of the time and place of their meeting, shall visit
4 each county of the district at least once in two months, and shall
5 examine, for discharge or recommendation for light duty, all
6 conscripts who have been furloughed under the provisions of
7 the preceding section, livery discharge granted by the said
8 medical board shall be final\and shall relieve the party frorc
y u\\ ->;iitary service in the future, when the disability is perzna-
10 nent and the ^nge 0f ^ jg gej. Arthin the certiScate.
1 Sec. 7. It shall be . ^ ^ officers and others employ-
£ ed in the military seivice 1 ^ Confederate Spates and not
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3 actually in the field nor attached to any army in the field, inclu-
4 ding quartermasters and commissaries, commanders of posts,
5 provost marshals, officers of the ordnance, nitre and mining
6 and medical bureaus, and others, to make certified monthly re-
7 turns to the nearest conscript officer, of the names, ages and
8 physical condition of all persons employed in their service,
9 which returns shall be forwarded to the General officer con-
10 trolling conscription in the State.
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1 Sec. 8. For the enforcement of the duties imposed by this
2 Act upon .the General officers controlling conscription in the
3 several States, such detachments of the reserve foices as they
4 may deem necessary, shall be placed at the:r disposal.
1 Sec. 9. In order to insure the produ tion of grain and pro-
2 visions necessary for the use of the army and the families of
3 soldiers, such overseers, farmers or planters as w; re not enroll-
4 ed in the military service on the 17th day of February, 1864,
5 and who will be more useful to the country in the pursuits of
6 agriculture than in the military service, shall be detailed upon
7 terms to be prescribed by the Secretary of War under the di-
8 rections cf the President. And'in order to ascertain what per-
9 sons should be detailed under t! is Act, for the purposes afore-
10 said, there shall be appointed by the President in each county,
U district or parish, an agricultural /board, consisting of three
12 farmers or planters over the ao/of forty- fire years, to whom
13 d^all be addressed every application for the detail of ver-
14 SCeVyfarmer or planter in their respective count'districts or
15 parishes and whose duty itphall be to ^ *ulre an^ report upon
16 the merits of such jtpplic^ti^ ^ a maj°rity of said
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board shall approve the same, they shall forward it together
with the reasons for their approval, to the General officer con-
trolling conscription in the State, and if he approve such appli-
cation, the detail shall be allowed. If the General officer of
conscription shall disapprove such application, the applicant
shall have the right of appeal to the Secretary of War, and if
the said board shall disapprove such application, their decision
shall be final and no right of appeal shall exist.
Sec. 10. The bureau of conscription, the camps of instruction
and the office of commandant of conscripts, are hereby abolish-
ed and all rules and regulations of the War Department incon-
sistent with this Act, are hereby repealed.