had furnished, it became necessary to estimate the number of years of service which each State, district, and sub-district had furnished, respectively, so that in ascertaining the required number for each district in order to obtain 300,000 men, each locality would receive full credit for the number of years of service furnished under the last call, or excess carried forward and credited upon that call, previous calls being filled with three-years" men, or enlistments reduced to a three-years" basis. The call of December 19, 1864, having been made to make up deficiencies under the call of July 18, 1864, it is not to be expected that the number of men required from localities will correspond with the number enrolled or their quotas under the call for 500,000. In order, therefore, to ascertain what number of men is due from a given district we must look to what it actually furnished under the call of July 18 instead of what it was required to furnish. Thus, where two districts having the same enrollment were required, under the call of July 18, 1864, to furnish 2,000 men each, and one actually furnished but 1,000 men, while the other filled its quota, it would not be lawful for the latter district, which had put 2,000 men in service, to be required now to furnish the same number as the former, which had furnished only 1,000. But suppose that both of the above districts had filled their quotas, the former with one-year's men and the latter with three-years" men, the one furnishing 2,000 and the other 6,000 years of service. Now, as the law provides that quotas shall be assigned" among the districts of the several States, considering and allowing for the numbers already furnished, as aforesaid, and the time of their service", in assigning a quota under a call to make up deficiencies, the deficiency of years" service as well as the deficiencies in number is to be estimated and the quotas varied accordingly.

As before said, the object of the present call is to raise 300,000 men, and they will be required from the different localities in proportion to the number enrolled and the number which such localities were deficient or in excess under the call for 500,000. This principle was announced from the Provost- Marshal-General's Bureau when the quotas under the call for 500,000 were announced, or about that time (see opinion of Solicitor of War Department herewith*), and the benefits that would result from three-years" enlistments and the law governing the subject explained. To secure three-years" men the Government offered $300 bounty, and paid but $100 to one-year's men; municipal authorities generally contributed local bounties in similar proportion. The law having provided that the periods of service heretofore furnished should be considered in assigning quotas, the question then to be determined is, at what time shall the credit be applied? As it is impossible to follow the fortune of each individual soldier and reckon the period of his actual service, it follows that either the credit for the period for which they enlist should be given when the men enter the service or withheld until the expiration of the three years" term. The rule has always been under all calls that when a soldier is accepted into the service he is received and credited for the term of his enlistment or draft, the Government taking the responsibility that he will serve for the full period of his enlistment, and in no case has any locality been called upon the replace men lost to the service by death, disability, or desertion. Enlistments for six months, nine months, one and two years under former calls were counted as of that term on entering the service, and as such reduced to the three years" basis. The period of service is reckoned

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*Of August 1, 1864, p. 562.

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