[House Bill, No. 100—Secret.]
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Dec. 21, 1863—Read first
and second times, and referred to Committee on Military Affairs.—
Jan. 23, 1864.—Reported back. Jan. 25, 1864.—Engrossed, read
the third time and passed.
A. R. LAMAR, Clerk.
SENATE, January 27, 1864.—Read first and times, and referred
to Committee on Military Affairs. February 2, 1864.—Reported
with amendments, and bill and amendments ordered to be printed.
_A_ BILL
To continue in service for the war all troops now in the Provisional
army of the Confederate States.
1 Section. 1. The Congress of the Confederate States of America do
2 enact, That all troops now in the provisional army of the Con-
3 federate States for general service, be and the same are hereby
4 continued in such service for and during the existing war with
5 the United States: Provided, That State troops, which have been
6 temporarily called out and placed under the authority of the Con-
7 federate Government, shall be exempted from the operation of
8 this act: And provided further, That the troops raised in any one
9 State shall not be continued in regimental, battallion or squad-
10 ron organization with troops raised in any other State.
1 Sce. 2. Be it further enacted, That said troops shall be retained
2 in the same companies, battalions and regiments in which they
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3 are serving at the passage of this act, with the same organization
4 and officers, unless regularly transferred or discharged, in ac-
5 cordance with the laws and regulations for the government of
G the army : Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be con-
7 strued as changing existing laws, with reference to the resigha-
8 tion, promotion, detail or detachment of officers : And provided
9 further, That soldiers from one State, in companies from other
10 States, shall be allowed, if they choose, to transfer to organiza-
11 tions from their own State, in the same arm of the service.
1 Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That six months after the first
2 day of April next, a bounty of one hundred dollars, in a six per
3 cent. Government bond, which the Secretary of the Treasury is
4 hereby authorized to issue, shall bo paid to every non-commis-^
5 sioned officer, musician and private, who shall then be in service,
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G or, in the event of his death previous to the period of said pay-
7 ment, then to the person or person that would be entitled, by law
8 to receive the arrearages of his pay : Provided, That no one shall
9 be entitled to the bounty herein provided, who shall, at any time,
10 during the six months ending after the first day of April next, be
11 absent from his command without leave.
1 Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, That, on the first day of May
2 next, in addition to the pay and allowances now provided by law,
twenty dollars shall be paid to every non-commissioned officer,
1 musician and private, who shall then be in service; or, in the
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5 event of his death, previous to the period of said payment, then
6 to the person or persons that would be entitled, by law, to^re-
7 ceive his arrearages of pay : Provided, That no one shall be en-
8 titled to the twenty dollars who shall, at any time, between the
9 passage of this act and the first, of May next, be absent without
10 leave.
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AMENDMENTS
Proposed by the Committee on Military Affairs to the bill (H. It. 100)
to continue in the service, for the war, all the troops now in the
provisional army of the Confederate States:
1 I. Strike out all after the enacting clause in the first section
2 down to the last proviso, and insert as follows : " That, from and
3 after the passage of this act, all white men, residents of the
4 Confederate States, between the ages of eighteen and fifty-five,
5 shall be in the military service of the Confederate States for tfye
6 war, including those who may hereafter reach the age of eigh-
7 teen years: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be
8 construed to authorize the discharge of enlisted' men who shall
9 hereafter reach the age of forty-five years, or over, from service
10 in the field.
1 II. At the end of the first section insert the words, " if at the
2 time of such organization said troops protested against being so
3 organized."
1 III. Strike out all of the second section after the word
2 " army," in the 8th line.
1 IY. Strike out sections three and four, and insert in lieu
2 thereof the following :
1 Sec. 3. That there shall be issued to every non-commissioned
% officer, musician, or private, who may have an honorable discharge
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3 from the army of the Confederate States, a bond drawing eight per
4 cent, interest for a sum equal to the amount which he has been
b paid while in the service; and that said bonds shall bear even
6 date with the discharge, and that the interest be payable annually,
7 and that the amount of said bonds shall be payable in twenty
8 years after date, and that said bonds, and the interest accruing
9 thereon, shall only be payable to the original obligee, during his
10 life, and to his widow, children or widowed mother after his
11 death.
1 Sec, 4. That to the widow, children, or widowed mother of
2 any non-commissioned officer, musician or private, who shall die
3 in service, shall be issued a bond of like character and conditions,
4 bearing date on the day of the death of the husband, father or
5 son: Provided, That the benefits of this act shall not enure to
6 any non-commissioned officer, musician or private who shall die
7 while absent from his command without leave, or while in arrest
8 for, or when convicted of desertion.
V. Add the following independent sections :
1 Sec. 5. that all persons betwen the ages of forty-five and
2 fifty-five, not now in the service, shall enroll themselves within
3 such time, and at such place or places in their respective coun-
4 ties or parishes, as may be prescribed by the President, and upon
5 their failure to do so, the persons so failing shall be conscribed
6 into the army in the field; and all details for provost and hospital
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7 guards, for commissary, quartermaster and nitre bureau agents,
8 clerks and guards, and for service in enforcing the conscript acts,
9 and for all other purposes, except as hereinafter provided, shall
10 be taken from those persons who are between the ages of forty-
11 five and fifty-five, not now in the army, and from those below the
12 age of forty-five, who are unfit for military service in the field
13 by reason of physical disability, within thirty days from the pas-
14 sage of this act: Provided, That in the trans-Mississippi depart-
15 ment, the time for the enrollment aforesaid shall be sixty days :
16 Provided, further, That all the persons herein named, between the
17 ages of forty-five and fifty-five, shall only be placed in the ser-
18 vice to act as details, as herein provided.
1 Sec. 6. That no person shall be relieved from the operation
2 of this law by reason of having been heretofore discharged from
3 the army, where no disability now exists, nor shall those who
4 have furnished substitutes be any longer exempted by reason
5 thereof: Provided, That no person who has heretofore been ex-
6 empted on account of religious opinions, and who has paid the
7 tax levied to relieve him from that service, shall be conscribed
8 under this act.
1 Sec. 7. That all laws granting exemptions from military ser-
2 vice be, and the same are hereby, repealed, and that hereafter
3 none shall be exempt except the following :
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I. All who shall he held to be unfit for military service, under
rules to be prescribed by the Secretary of War.
II. The-Yice President of the Confederate States, the members
of Congress and of the several State Legislatures, and the
officers thereof, and such other Confederate and State officers as
the President or the Governors of the States, respectively, may
declare to be necessary for the proper administration of the
Confederate or State Governments, as the case may be.
III. Every minister of religion, authorized to preach according
to the rules of his sect, and who was, on the 10th of April,
1862, and has been since, in the regular discharge of his minis-
terial duties; superintendents of asylums of the deaf, dumb and
blind, and of the insane; one editor of each newspaper estab-
lished and being published on the 10th of April, 1862, who was
owner or editor of a newspaper at that date, and which has been
so published regularly, since that time, and such journeymen
printers as such editor may, under oath, declare are indispen-
sable for printing said newspaper; one skilled apothecary in each
apothecary store, who was doing business, as such apothecary, on
the 10th of April, 1862, and who is now, and has been doing
business since that time; all physicians over the age of thirty-
five years, who now are, and for the last seven years have been,
in the actual and regular practice of their profession ; teachers,
whose schools are composed of not less than twenty students,
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and who are now engaged, and have been continuously engaged,
in teaching for two years next preceding the passage of this act:
Provided, That where the occupations enumerated in this clause,
have been suspended by the invasion of the enemy, and have
been resumed at the place of residence, or at any other place,
the persons herein mentioned shall still be entitled to exemption,
if, in other respects, meeting the requirements of this and other
exemption acts.
IV. For the police and management of slaves, there shall be
exempted one person on each farm or plantation, the sole
property of a minor, a person of unsound mind, a femme sole,
or a person absent from home in the military or naval service of
the Confederacy, on which there are twenty or "more effective
hands: Provided, The person so exempted was employed, and
acting as an overseer, previous to the 16th of April, 1862, and
there is no white male adult on said farm or plantation, who is not
liable to military duty, which facts shall be verified by the
affidavits of said person, and two respectable citizens, and shall
be filed with the enrolling officer: And provided. The owner of
such farm or plantation, his agent, or legal representative shall
make affidavit, and deliver the same to the enrolling officer, that,
after diligent effort, no overseer can be procured for such farm
or plantation not liable to military duty: Provided, further, That
this clause shall not extend to any farm or plantation on which
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52 the negroes'have been placed, by division, from any other farm
53 or plantation since the 11th day of October, 1882: Provided
54 further, That for every person exempted as aforesaid, and during
55 the period of such exemption, there shall be paid, annually, into
56 the public treasury, by the owners of such slaves, the sum of five
51 hundred dollars: Provided further, That nothing herein con-
58 tained shall be so construed as to prevent the President from
59 detailing the owner of a plantation to oversee the same, upon the
60 terms, and in the cases, where such owrner would have the right
61 to* claim the exemption of an overseer to manage such plantation.
62 Y. Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed
63 to repeal the act approved April 14, 1863, entitled " An act to
64 exempt contractors for carrying the mails of the Confederate
65 States, and the drivers of post-coaches and hacks, from military
66 service: Provided further, That the exemptions herein granted
67 shall only continue whilst the persons exempted hereby are
68 actually engaged in their respective pursuits or occupations.
1 Sec. 8. That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to
2 grant details, under general rules and regulations to be issued
3 from the War Department, either from persons between forty-five
4 and fifty-five years of age, or from the army in the field, in all
5 cases where, in his judgment, justice, equity and necessity,
6 require that he should make such details, and he may revoke such
7 order of details whenever he may think proper: Provided, That
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S the power herein granted to the President to make details and
9 exemptions, under certain circumstances, shall not be construed
10 to authorize the exemption or detail of any contractor for furnish-
11 ing supplies to the Government, by reason of said contract,
12 unless the head or secretary of the department shall certify that
13 the personal services of said contractor are indispensable to the
14 execution of the contract, and that the same is being carried out
15 in good laith, and then never more than one person for each
16 contract, or of the officers, clerks, agents, or employees of express
17 companies.
1 Sec. S. That any quartermaster or assistant quartermaster,
2 commissary or assistant commissary, (other than those serving
3 with brigades or regiments in the field,) or officer in the nitre
4 bureau, provost marshal, or enrolling officer, who shall employ
5 any person between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, who is
6 liable to military duty in the field, as a clerk, agent, or in any
7 other way, shall, upon conviction thereof by a court martial, or
8 military court, be cashiered; and it shall he the duty of any
9 department or district commander, upon proof, by the oath of
10 any creditable person, that any quartermaster or assistant quar-
11 termaster, commissary or assistant commissary, or officer in the
12 nitre bureau, provost marshal, or enrolling officer, has violated
13 this law, immediately to relieve said officer 1'rom his command,
14 and take prompt measures to have him tried for said offence; and
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any department or district commander who shall fail to do as
required by this act, as above stated, shall, upon conviction
thereof, be dismissed the service.
Sf.c. 10. That in appointing local boards of surgeons, for the
examinations of persons liable to military service, no member
composing the same shall be appointed from the county in which
said persons reside.
Sec. 11. That nothing herein contained shall be construed to
repeal any part of the act entitled " An act to provide further for
the public defence," approved 16th of April, 1862, or of the act
amendatory thereto, approved 27th of September, 1862, except
as herein expressly provided for.