LOUISVILLE, KY., December 13, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON:

I arrived here to-day from Lexington. Recruiting has been almost suspended, owing to the presence of so many guerrilla bands, and detachments sufficiently large could not be obtained to send through the infested districts, as most of the troops have been sent into Tennessee. Major McBride, stationed at Paducah, recently recruited at Cairo some 400 negroes. They were escaped negroes from this State. Not one of them had been enrolled in Illinois. The assistant adjutant-general at Springfield, Ill., forbid their being taken to Paducah, although he ought to have known that they could have been credited to Illinois and that Governor Yates would have no objections to their being enlisted. I desire authority to send recruiting officers to Southern Illinois, where, it is believed, 1,000 such men can be obtained.

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

WAR DEPT., PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., December 14, 1864.

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: In accordance with your verbal instructions, communicated to me some days since, I have the honor to report on the comparative cost of putting men into service by volunteering and drafting under the laws governing during the past year:

COST OF VOLUNTEERING.

The expense of raising the 402,487 volunteers who were mustered between November 1, 1863, and October 31, 1864 for the term of one two, and three years, amounts to $98,483,649, as follows:

Pay of bounty, including installments already paid and

those become to become due........................... $95,907,400

Collecting, drilling, and organizing volunteers...... 2,576,249

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Total............................................... $98,483,649

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Which gives an average expense of $244.69 per man.

COST OF DRAFTING.

Amount of expenses, enrollment and draft, from

November 1, 1863, to October 31, 1864............... $3,534,523.49

Add amount paid by Pay Department U. S. Army-

To 193 provost-marshals for one year,

at $129.50 per month.............................. 299,922.00

To 193 commissioners for one year,

at $112.83. per month.............................. 261,314.28

To 193 surgeons for one year,

at $112.83 per month............................... 261,314.28

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Total.............................................. 4,357,074.05

Number of persons obtained by draft during the above period, 78,034. Average cost of each, $55.84.

During the same period 50,628 drafted persons paid commutation money. The expense of enrolling, drafting, transporting, and examining these men was just the same as it would have been if they had gone into service instead of paying commutation. Considering this fact, the average cost of putting a man into service by draft will be $33.86. In this statement the entire expense of the provost-marshals" establishments in the different States and districts and at headquarters in Washington, including the pay of the members of boards of