District of Wisconsin, relative to the correction of the enrollment and assignment of quotas in the First District, and urging the propriety and justice of postponing the assignment of quotas in the State of Wisconsin, and in reply would state that the assignment has been made, but the quota will be revised as rapidly and completely as possible, with a view to the correction of the quota hereafter.

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES. B. FRY,

Provost-Marshal-General.

PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL'S OFFICE, FOURTH DIST. OF MAINE,

Bangor, January 6, 1865.

Major R. M. LITTLER,

Acting Assistant Provost-Marshal-General, Augusta, Me.:

SIR: Allow me to call your attention to the north and eastern borders of this State, particularly that portion included in this district. We have some forty townships bordering on the British Provinces in which it is almost impossible to procure men by draft. In the draft under call of July 18, 1864, 357 men failed to report, and under the supplementary draft, same call, out of 350 men drafted about 60 were obtained. Not a man has been obtained from the French settlements by draft since the organization of this office. The men failing to report from these localities immediately cross the lines into the British Provinces or go intot he distant lumbering camps on the border. Deserters from other portions of the State are also to be found in large numbers in the lumbering regions on both sides of the line. In some cases quite extensive settlements have been made just across the line in the British Provinces, composed almost entirely of deserters.

From the foregoing considerations it will be apparent that but few of these man can be arrested and made available to the service without a larger force than I have at command. As might be expected, these deserters are more or less in sympathy with the rebels and form a nucleus for rebel operations. I learn upon authority that I deem reliable that raids upon our citizens have been contemplated, and only frustrated by becoming known to Union men, residents of the provinces in the vicinity of Houlton, which is the great thoroughfare into the provinces. In view of this state of things, I would respectfully ask if permission cannot be obtained for the organization of one company of frontier guards to be raised in this district, and to be posted so as to render efficient aid in the arrest of deserters, and also to prevent raids upon our territory. Other States which have no frontier are allowed to raise several companies for this purpose, while Maine, with its large amount of territory bordering on the British Provinces, is entirely unprotions, taken in connection with the great drain upon Aroostook to fill the calls of more favored portions of the State, will, I doubt not, commend themselves to your favorable consideration as an act of simple justice to this section.

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

ELIJAH LOW,

Captain and Provost-Marshal, Fourth District of Maine.