Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 10.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[44]

Section six provides that the Provost-Marshal General shall make rules for government of subordinates, furnish them the names of deserters, communicate all orders of the President for calling out the national forces; file copies of enrolment lists, obtain reports from his subordinates; audit all accounts connected with the service under his direction, and perform such other duties as the President prescribes.

Section seven. The provost-marshal is to arrest and send to the nearest military post all deserters; to inquire into and report to his superior all treasonable practices; to seize and confine spies of the enemy; and obey generally all lawful regulations and orders of the Provost-Marshal General.

Section eight provides for a board of enrolment in each district, of which the provost-marshal shall be president; the others to be appointed by the President of the United States, and one to be a practising physician and surgeon.

Section nine provides that the board shall divide the districts into sub-districts of not exceeding two without the direction of the Secretary of War, before March tenth, and in each alternate year thereafter; to appoint an enrolling officer in each sub-district, and furnish blanks, etc. The officer to enroll all persons in his subdistrict before April first, noting age, residence, and occupation, and report to the board; the board to consolidate the names into a list, and report to the Provost-Marshal General before first May.

Section ten provides for separate enrolment of the classes, and that the ages shall be reckoned from the first July after enrolment.

Section eleven. The enrolment is to be for two years, and the enrolled to be liable to serve three years, or for the war, on the same footing as the volunteers, as now provided by law.

Section twelve. In case of call, the President is to assign to each district the number of men to be furnished; the board to draft the required number, and sixty per cent additional — the drafted men to be notified by the provost-marshal, and report for duty within ten days.

Section thirteen. Men failing to report, to be treated as deserters, unless they show non-liability to do military duty.

Section fourteen provides for the inspection of the drafted men by the surgeon of the board, and the hearing of claims for exemption by the board; their decision to be final in all cases.

Section fifteen provides for the trial and punishment of surgeons for receiving presents or agreeing to receive any valuable thing for making a false report or for neglecting to make a report. Punishment to be fine not more than five hundred dollars nor less than two hundred dollars, imprisonment at discretion of court-martial, and dismissal from service.

Section sixteen provides for the discharge of those not required, and payment of their travelling expenses. Also for the payment of the expenses of the draft; expenses of arresting and returning deserters; provides against commutation to the provost-marshals except for forage, and for pay of clerk hire, postage, stationery, etc.

Section seventeen provides for substitutes.

Section eighteen provides for paying a bounty of fifty dollars to all the present volunteers who reenlist for one year, one half on reenlistment, and the balance at the end of the term of reenlistment; those who reenlist for two years, twenty-five dollars of the one hundred dollar bounty provided by the fifth section of the act of July twenty-second, 1861, relating to volunteers.

Section nineteen provides for the consolidation of companies in regiments of volunteers from the same State, when reduced to one half the maximum, and for a reduction of the officers in such cases in the same proportion.

Section twenty provides that whenever a regiment is reduced below the minimum allowed by law, no officers shall be appointed beyond the number necessary to command the regiment.

Section twenty-one repeals so much of section five of the act of July seventeenth, 1862, as requires the approval of the President to a sentence of a court-martial in case of a spy or a deserter, or of mutiny or murder, and substitutes the approval of the commanding general in the field.

Section twenty-two gives to courts-martial power to punish absenting officers by reducing them to the ranks for three years.

Section twenty-three provides that soldiers shall not sell or dispose of the clothes, arms, etc., furnished by the United States, but all such articles may be seized by any civil or military officer and delivered to any quartermaster.

Section twenty-four provides for the punishment by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, and imprisonment not less than six months nor more than two years, for enticing a soldier to desert, for concealing or harboring or employing a deserter, and for purchasing his arms, clothing, etc., and the same penalty for any superintendent or conductor of any public conveyance, captains of ships, etc., for carrying away or refusing to deliver up any person knowing him to have deserted.

Section twenty-five provides the same punishment for resisting a draft, or for counselling or aiding resistance to a draft, or counselling drafted men not to appear at the place of rendezvous, or dissuading men from performing military duty.

Section twenty-six provides that the President shall issue his proclamation declaring that soldiers now absent without leave may return within a time to be specified by him without punishment, except the forfeiture of their pay and rations during absence; and those who do not return, to be treated as deserters.

Section twenty-seven provides for taking depositions of witnesses not residing in the military district where the court is held.

Section twenty-eight provides that the judge-advocate shall have power to appoint a reporter to record the proceedings and testimony of the courts-martial.

Section twenty-nine provides for a continuance for cause to either party, but not to exceed