other States, it becomes my duty to call forth every man in the State able to bear arms as fast as they can be armed, to aid in the defense of our homes, our altars, and the graves of our ancestors. I am fully aware of the importance of the growing crop of the State, and have delayed this call as long as the exigencies will permit to enable the people to do the labor necessary to secure the crop. In the southern portion of the State it is believed this will be accomplished by the time this proclamation can be generally published, while ten days or two weeks longer will enable those in the northern half of the State to do most of the labor necessary to make the crop.

I, therefore, by virtue of the authority in me vested by the laws of the State, do hereby order into active military service all that part of the reserved militia of this State between the ages of fifty and fifty-five years and all between the ages of sixteen and seventeen years who reside south of a line running east and west across the territory of the State, passing through the city of Macon, to report to G. W. Smith, at Atlanta, with the least possible delay; and I further order that all persons between said ages subject to military duty who reside north of said line, report to General Smith, each leaving his home on the 20th of this month and repairing to Atlanta by the nearest and speediest route.

I also order all free white male persons in the State between the ages of seventeen and fifty years who are exempt from Confederate conscription, and who are not absolutely unable to do militia duty, which disability must be shown by the certificate of a surgeon properly appointed under the laws of the State, to report with the militia of their respective counties, as they are subject to State militia duty. And I further require all free white male persons between said ages in this State not in actual military service of the Confederacy, except as therein exempted, to report also, as I cannot suppose the President will claim as exempt from militia duty in that great emergency the large number of able-bodied youung men who have Confederate details to attend to, various industrial avocations and pursuits, in which they have no military service to perform.

In cannot surely be the intention of the Confederate Government to place a large number of young men able to do service in the organization to keep them out of the bullet department. Hence I claim their aid in the field till this emergency is passed, and direct in case of their refusal to report, when others embraced in the case respond, that their neighbors who are going to camp arrest and compel them to go. The time allowed enables those of them who are planters to lay by their crops, or to approximate so near to completion that serious injury cannot grow out of their absence, while little damage will be done by the temporary absence from their places of Confederate tax assessors, collectors, tanners, mechanics, secret-service men, &c., as their business must cease entirely if the enemy overrun the State. All who respond to this call are required to arrest and carry with them all deserters within their power at the time they start to camp. The following persons are not embraced in this call: All commissioned officers of the Confederate States on detached or local service; all State officers and others exempt from military duty by the act to reorganize the militia and the act amendatory of that act; all persons int the employment of the Confederate States in the cities of Savannah, Augusta, Macon, Columbus, Griffin, Atlanta, and Athens who belong to regularly organized military companies who drill frequently and are held for the

44 R R-VOL LII, PT II