the man is not a deserter from draft elsewhere. The sub-district which has paid the bounty claims him on the ground that he was mustered by a U. S. mustering officer and credited to it before they paid the bounty; that they can have no means of knowing whether or not the man is drafted elsewhere except his affidavit, which is generally taken that he is not so drafted. The difficulty comes from attempting to raise men by volunteering and draft at the same time. My opinion is that the man being in service, having been mustered by U. S. mustering officer, and received local bounty, his credit to the place paying the bounty should hold good; that the moment his term of volunteer service has expired he should be arrested as a deserter from the draft, assigned to a regiment to serve out the full year for which drafted, and credited to the sub-district in which he was originally enrolled. A complete list of names of these men should be forwarded by Provost-Marshal-General to the Adjutant- General that they may be arrested and assigned as recommended. I further recommend most earnestly that all volunteers be required to credit themselves to the districts in which they are enrolled. I have argued this question so frequently and urgently in my communications to the department that it is unnecessary here to repeat the manifest reasons for this change. It will be opposed by rich districts of course. I respectfully call your attention to the rapid increase in Pennsylvania of non- combatant sects. The Quakers, Dunkards, and Mennonites are having more than a revival. Section 17, act approved February 24, 1864, allows these men when drafted to be exempted on payment of $300. In the first place, this sum is too little. The ordinary local bounties to volunteers are $500, the United States paying $100 more for one-year's men. Substitutes receive from $700 to $1,200. The proviso in section 17 avails nothing. A man who is coward enough to change his religion to keep out of service is not likely to have been anything but uniformly and consistently a coward. I respectfully recommend that section 17 be changed, and that these men be assigned to duty as teamsters, laborers, in any position of hard service but no danger-the money clause being entirely abrogated. I respectfully recommend that section 14 act approved February 24, 1864, be rescinded. One place for examination of drafted men is sufficient for each district, however large. The provost-marshal and Board are required at headquarters all the time and cannot leave for a day without detriment to the service and injury and delay to the people.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

RICHARD I. DODGE,

Major Twelfth U. S. Infty., Actg. Asst. Prov. March General

INDIANAPOLIS, December 13, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

I am willing to undertake the raising of one or two regiments of veterans for Hancock's corps if they can be recruited and organized as other regiments have been in this State, and am of opinion that the corps can bed raised much quicker in this way than by the plan proposed.

O. P. MORTON,

Governor.