C. B. Duffield to Commandants, January 29, 1864

No. 5. Richmond, Va., January 29, 1864.

I. Commandants will forthwith proceed to change the locality of each Congressional district and local enrolling officer, and each Congressional district examining surgeon. Care will be observed not to place an enrolling officer in the district or county of which he is a resident.

I. I. Public notice in the newspapers of the State will be given for twenty days, calling for the presentation to the enrolling officers of all exemptions heretofore granted, and officers will be instructed carefully to revise them, renewing such as are correct, and revoking such as are fraudulent or erroneous.

III. Corruption, abuses, and errors are known to exist, and the purport of this circular is to endeavor to remedy and prevent these abuses and give more activity to the service. No application for a departure from its provision will be considered.

I. V. The Superintendent again appeals to the honor and patriotism of the commandants of conscripts, and directly to the enrolling officers, for increased diligence, activity, and energy in the performance of the important duties confided to them.

The President, the Congress, the people, and the noble armies now in the field look to the authorities of conscription to maintain and increase those armies, and thereby secure the public liberty. Every man engaged in this service should feel that the liberties of his country and the preservation of parents, wives, sisters, and daughters from a brutal and relentless enemy depend on his individual exertion. The officer of conscription who neglects his duty or abuses his trust is a traitor of the deepest dye. Wantof energy, want of earnest, honest, untiring diligence is cowardly treason. The guilty officer may perhaps escape present detection and punishment, but the curse of God and his country will fall upon him. We have been told what we are expected to do, and how to do it, and if we fail to get into the field by the Ist of May every man the law requires us to send there, we will deserve and will certainly receive a just condemnation. These are not mere idle words of exhortation. Let us fail, and we will find their bitter truth. We are soldiers assigned to this service— the most delicate, the most important in the public defense. Let us show that we are as zealous and as brave as our brother soldiers who are in front of the enemy. :

By command of Col. John 8. Preston, superintendent: