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FOURTH SESSION, FIRST CONFEDERATE CONGRESS.

The fourth session of the First Confederate Congress began at Richmond, December 7, 1863, and ended February 18, 1864.

December 28, 1863, the first act authorized the producers of sweet potatoes for the year 1863 to pay commutation in money in lieu of the tax in kind, amounting to 10 per cent, the commutation value to be fixed by the commissioners under the impressment act."

A second act authorized assistant quartermasters and agents engaged in the collection of taxes in kind to accept salt pork in lieu of bacon.

A third act the same day abolished substitution. It prescribed:

That no person liable to military service shall hereafter be permitted or allowed to furnish a substitute for such service, nor shall any substitute be received, enlisted, or enrolled in the military service of the Confederate States. c

January 5, 1864, the merciless demands of a weak and extravagant military system were again illustrated in an act

to put an end to the exemption from military service of those who have heretofore furnished substitutes.

Whereas in the present circumstances of the country it requires the aid of all who are able to bear arms: Therefore,

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That no person shall be exempted from military service by reason of having furnished a substitute; but this act shall not be so construed as to affect persons who, though not liable to render military service, have nevertheless furnished substitutes.d

January 22, 1864, any person not subject to the rules and articles of war, who should be convicted before a district court of the Confederate States of having enticed soldiers to desert, harbored deserters, or purchased from any soldier his army equipments or clothing, was made liable to a fine not exceeding $1,000 and imprisonment not exceeding

two years.

February 3, 1864, the Confederate President was authorized at any time to assign judges from one military court to another as in his judg ment the service might require.

February 6, another act relating to military courts prescribed:

That commanders of corps and departments be, and they are hereby, authorized to detail field officers as members of military courts whenever any of the judges of said courts shall be disqualified by consanguinity or affinity, or unable from sickness or other unavoidable cause to attend said courts.

February 15, 1864, the writ of habeas corpus was suspended in all cases arising out of the war, the suspension to be continued till ninety days after the next meeting of Congress.

February 16, 1864, the authority to appoint military courts was further increased. The law prescribed:

That in addition to the military courts now authorized by law, the president be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint a military court to attend any division of cavalry in the field, and also one for each State within a military department, whenever in his judgment such courts would promote the public interest; which courts shall be organized and have the same powers and duties and the members thereof appointed as provided by law.h

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February 17, the proceedings of military courts, as in the case of general courts-martial, were made subject to the review of army commanders whenever the armies consisted of two or more corps. The jurisdiction of the courts without reference to the corps to which it was attached was extended to all offenders below the grade of lieutenant-general.

A second act February 17, authorized the Confederate President to appoint one general in the Provisional Army for the command of the trans-Mississippi Military Department; also as many lieutenant-generals as he might deem necessary to command any one or more of the military departments.

These officers were to hold the increased grade so long as they should "efficiently discharge the duties in command of said several departments," in default of which they were to resume their former rank."

A third act as to army commanders in time of war to approve and execute all sentences of general courts-martial, whether of life or death, except those relating to a general officer; the latter were to be forwarded for the approval and orders of the Confederate President."

IMPRESSMENTS.

A fourth act increased the power of impressment. Its first and second sections read:

That whenever the President shall declare that the public exigencies render it necessary, impressments of meat for the use of the Army may be made from any supplies that may exist in the country, under the express condition that just compensation shall be afforded to the owner of the meat taken or impressed, and subject to the following restrictions and limitations:

SEC. 2. The power to direct such impressment shall be conferred upon the secretary of war, but he shall not reduce the supplies of any person below one-half of the quantity usually allowed for the support of himself, his family, and dependents for the year. He shall exercise the said power by orders directed to the officers or agents he may employ, who shall have explicit instructions as to the mode of its execution, and injunctions that the same shall not be abused.

When the owner and the impressing officer could not agree upon the amount of meat liable to impressment and the just compensation for the same, the difference was to be settled by the arbitration of two or three persons who were to perform their duty under oath. For the meat seized, vouchers were to be given to the owner, to bepromptly paid by the disbursing officer of the command for which the meat was taken, or by the chief of the bureau having charge of disbursements for similar objects. d

APPROPRIATIONS.

The appropriations for the second six months of the fiscal year ending the 13th of June, 1864, showed no reduction in the War Department.

a Chap. I.
b Chap. II.

C Chap. LII, 1st and 2d secs., p. 196.

d Chap. LII.

These by the fifth act of February 17, 1864, were as follows:

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The other appropriations for the same period were as follows:

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The appropriations for the War Department for the entire fiscal year ending June 30, 1864, were:

First six months

Second six months

Total....

$364, 785, 596.00

365, 448, 299.00

730, 233, 895.00

If to this be added $173,446,209.18, representing the expenditures in the other Departments, it appears that the total appropriations of the Confederate Government, which were necessitated by a depreciated currency-the logical result of the weak and extravagant military system adopted at the beginning amounted to the enormous sum of $903,680,104.18.

Such was the progress toward financial ruin made by the Confederate Government before the close of the third year of the war. Nevertheless, by means of the laws of impressment and conscription, it was still enabled to resist for nearly another year, the gigantic preparations which had been made by the Union to overthrow it.

February 17, a sixth act repealed the act of April 21, 1862, authorizing the organization of Partisan Rangers. Such as were serving as cavalry were to be continued as regular cavalry, the object of the law being to bring them

under the general conditions of the Provisional Army as to discipline, control, and movements under such regulations as the Secretary of War might prescribe.

In his discretion such companies as were "serving within the lines of of the enemy" could be excepted from the operations of the act."

a Chap. LIV.

February 17, 1864, a seventh act authorized the Confederate President to organize such bureaus or agencies of the War Department west of the Missouri as the public service might require. The Confederate President was authorized to assign for this service such staff officers and clerks as might be necessary, the latter to be exempt from military duty and not to be allowed a salary exceeding $2.000 per annum.

Subject to the approval of the Confederate President the general commanding the trans-Mississippi Department was also authorized to assign officers and make appointments in the proposed bureaus."

February 17, 1864, an eighth act authorized the organization of an invalid corps composed of officers, soldiers, or seamen disabled by wounds or other injuries received in the line of duty. The members were subject to such duty as they could perform, and in case of recovery they were entitled to be restored to their respective commands." By a ninth act the Confederate President was authorized

upon the recommendation of the general commanding a department or a separate army in the field-

to fill any vacancy in the commissioned officers of a regiment or battalion by the promotion to the same, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, of any officer, noncommissioned (officer), or private who may have distinguished himself by exhibiting peculiar valor or skill on the battlefield: Provided, That the officer, noncommissioned officer, or private so recommended and nominated for promotion shall belong to the regiment or battalion in which the vacancy may have occurred.

A tenth act added to each regiment of engineer troops two quartermaster-sergeants."

An eleventh act increased the number of officers in the engineer corps of the Provisional Army from 100 to 120, the corps to consist of 3 colonels, 4 lieutenant-colonels, 8 majors, 45 captains, 35 first-lieutenants, and 25 second-lieutenants."

Six military storekeepers were also added to the Army with the rank of captains of infantry, the appointees to be selected from persons disqualified for active service by wounds or disease whilst in the army, or from persons over 45 years of age.

A twelfth act authorized the issue of 6 per cent bonds to the amount of $500,000,000 to pay the expenses of the Government not otherwise provided for, the principal and interest of the bonds to be exempt from taxation.

A thirteenth act increased the burden of taxation. On the value of property, real and personal, a tax was levied of 5 per cent; on gold and silver watches, 10 per cent; on shares in all stock companies, 5 per cent; on all gold, silver, and money held abroad, 5 per cent; on profits on spirits, flour, corn, etc., 10 per cent; on profits made by buying and selling gold, foreign exchange, etc., 10 per cent. On the amount of profits exceeding 25 per cent made during the years 1863 or 1864 by any bank, railroad, canal, insurance, or other joint stock company of any description, incorporated or not, or such excess, 25 per cent.

FINAL CONSCRIPTION.

While the legislation relating to furloughs and discharges demoralized the army and led to absenteeism and reduction, another law of

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February 17, 1864, sought to increase the Army by extending the age of conscription. Avoiding the blunder of short enlistments the first section of the law prescribed:

That from and after the passage of this act all white men, residents of the Confederate States, between the ages of seventeen and fifty, shall be in the military service of the Confederate States for the war.a

The second section, with the same boldness that was shown in the original conscription law of 1862, claimed that all soldiers then in the army, between the ages of 18 and 45, should be retained during the war. It read

That all the persons aforesaid, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, now in service, shall be retained during the present war with the United States, in the same regiments, battalions, and companies to which they belong at the passage of this act, with the same organization and officers, unless regularly transferred or discharged, in accordance with the laws and regulations for the government of the army.

A proviso to this section permitted men or companies from one State serving in regiments from another to transfer to organizations of the same arm from their own State.

The third section granted a bounty of $100 to every enlisted man who should be in the service at the expiration of six months from the 1st of April, 1864; provided, that at no time during that period he should be absent without leave.

The fourth section made all persons liable to service who had purchased substitutes, as also all who had been discharged for disability, whose disability had been removed.

The fifth section required all white male residents of the Confederate States, between the ages of 17 and 18, and between 45 and 50, to enroll themselves, within thirty days east, and sixty days west of the Mississippi, at such places and under such regulations as the Confederate President might prescribe.

The object of the law, as stated in the proviso to the section, was:

That the persons mentioned in this section shall constitute a reserve for State defense and detail duty, and shall not be required to perform service out of the State in which they reside.c

Any person who failed to enroll himself without a reasonable excuse therefor, to be judged of by the Confederate President, was, according to the law, to

be placed in service in the field for the war in the same manner as though he were between the ages of eighteen and forty-five.

Having finally declared all white men, residents of the Confederate States, between the ages of 18 and 45, in the military service of the Confederate States for the war, and furthermore having ventured to extend the time of all soldiers in service to the end of the war-making a second arbitrary extension of the one-year enlistment of the volunteers of 1861-the sixth section returned to the folly of new organizations, with all the officers elected by their men. It permitted all men between the ages of 17 and 18, and 45 and 50, to

form themselves into voluntary organizations of companies, battalions, or regiments, and elect their own officers-said organizations to conform to the existing law; and having so organized, to tender their services as volunteers during the war to the President; and if such organization shall furnish proper muster rolls, as now required,

a Chap. LXV, p. 211.

Chap. LXV, p. 211. e Chap. LXV, sec. 5, p. 211.

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