The roll book of drafted men is a simple list of the names as they come from the wheel, with the date of report of each man and final disposition. If accepted, he will be found under his proper number in the muster and descriptive book of drafted men; if exempted, in book of exemption; if he does not report, in record of delinquent drafted men. No proper record of deserters is now kept. Most of the provost-marshals have a large book in which names of deserters are registered, but they are the names of the deserters reported from the Provost-Marshal-General's Office. Their own deserters are dropped and no record made. The forms A, B, and C were got up by Captain Sheffler, acting assistant adjutant-general, and forwarded December 8, with my approval. At the present time should a delinquent drafted man be arrested, and afterward exempted by the Board of Enrollment, the party arresting can receive no reward or consideration. The expense of making the arrest and the uncertainty of reward render persons indifferent about the arrest of this class of delinquents. I recommend a regulation authorizing the refunding of actual and reasonable expenses of men who arrest delinquent drafted men subsequently exempted by the Board.

On the 7th instant I had the honor to call your attention to difficulties growing out of the enlistment of substitutes for drafted men by regular recruiting officers. I respectfully recommend that an order be issued confining the acceptance of substitutes for drafted men to the boards of the districts in which the principals are drafted. I also repeat my recommendation that substitutes should be enlisted only in the Regular Army, and by the provost-marshal of the district in which the principal is enrolled; that they be sent to draft rendezvous and thence assigned to regular regiments by the Adjutant-General. I would also call your attention to section 5, act approved February 24, 1864, which provides-

That if such substitute is not liable to draft the person furnishing him shall be exempt from draft during the time for which such substitute is not liable to draft, not exceeding the term for which he was drafted.

Therefore, if a principal being drafted puts into the regular service a substitute for three years, he, the principal, having been drafted for only one year, is exempt by such substitute for only one year. This argues that Congress did not contemplate the enlistment of substitutes for drafted men into the regular service, or by other officers than the district provost-marshals, and further satisfies me that the enlistment by regular recruiting officers of substitutes for drafted men is an assumption not warranted by law or regulation. It is now much easier to get indifferent substitutes into service through regular recruiting officers than through boards of enrollment, and though the principals are warranted that such substitutes exempt them for but one year, they prefer putting them in this way. They have a hope that Congress will revise section 5 and allow them the benefit of their three-years" substitutes. A large number of cases have occurred requiring, I think, a special regulation or order. The moment a man learns that he is drafted he runs off to another county and enlists, securing the large bounty. The man is really a deserter. The question is continually presented, Where should this man be credited? he is claimed by the sub-district from which drafted on the ground that being enrolled and belonging to that sub-district it is entitled to the benefit of his service; that the sub-district paying the local bounty is obliged to know before payment of such bounty that

63 R R-SERIES III, VOL IV