has been so much annoyed with companies below the minimum number that he directs me to warn you that he will receive no companies that do not have the minimum number present at the muster and inspection, and those that have not the minimum number will be disbanded and put in other companies. The enlistment of deserters is positively prohibited, and if presented will be turned over to their proper commands. You will rendezvous your command at as early a date as practicable at Griffin, Ga. ; direct them to rendezvous as companies and not individually. There have been a good many complaints in regard to men representing themselves as belonging to Colonel Bryan's regiment. You will see that this is rectified.

I am, sir, very respectfully, &c., your obedient servant,

LAMAR COBB,

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT,

Richmond, Va., January 3, 1865.

Hon. J. S. DICKINSON,

Member of Congress:

SIR: I have examined the joint resolution of the Congress submitted by you to this Department. By the act of Congress of May 1, 1863, certain persons were exempted as oversees for the police and management of slaves on each farm or plantation, the sole property of a minor, a person of unsound mind, a femme sole, or person absent in the military service of the Confederacy on which there are twenty or more slaves. One of the conditions was that the sum of $500 should be paid annually during the exemption by the owners of the slaves for the persons so exempted. The tenth section of the military act of 17th of February last provided that all laws granting exemptions from military service be, and the same are hereby, repealed and hereafter none shall be exempted except those mentioned ibm that act. The first section of the act provides that all persons between the ages of seventeen and fifty (white men and eesidents) shall be in the military service for the war.

No provision was made in this act for the oversees who had been exempt under the act of May 1, 1863. This Department decided that under the military act of 17th of February last the exemption in favor of oversees could no longer be claimed. It directed that in making of details for agricultural purposes the fact that an overseer had been employed and the tax paid should be considered as an equitable circumstance, and if the plantation or farm on which he was provided a surplus, that he might be detailed for duty as an agriculturist. In some cases it has granted a furlough to the overseer till the expiration of his term.

The confusion that has been produced arises from the fact that many of the persons who paid the tax paid it in the latter part of 1863, or early in 1864, and they claim exemption from the date of this payment. But it is to be observed that in the most of these cases practical was operative from the date of the act of May, 1863, and only the payment deferred. The Conscription Bureau should have prescribed that the payment was for a exemption from 1st of May, 1863, to 1st of May, 1864.

No case has come to the knowledge of the Department in which more than one tax of $500 has been paid by any overseer. The num