HEADQUARTERS CONSCRIPTION SERVICE, June 6, 1864

Macon, Ga., June 6, 1864.

Respectfully forwarded to Col. John 8. Preston, superintendent Bureau of Conscription.

There can be no doubt of the truth of the statement of the within letter or of the justice of the writer’s appreciation of the facts. As far as I can learn, almost all the militia and civil officers exempted by the Governor of Georgia ‘‘as necessary to the State Government” are between the ages of eighteen and fifty and fit for field service. District and sub-engineer officers have been directed to obtain and furnish these headquarters accurate information as to the number of officers in their respective districts and counties thus exempt, together with their ages and date of appointment or election, which will give a precise exhibit of the extent to which these wholesale exemptions have affected the effective strength of the Army.

WM. M. BROWNE, Colonel and Commandant.

{Inclosure.] THE STATE MILITIA.

The Legislature at its extra session having transferred all between the ages of seventeen and fifty to the Confederate Government, the Milledgeville Union says Governor Brown immediately sent a copy of the resolutions to the Secretary of War and requested him to permit the militia so transferred to volunteer and elect their own officers. So soon as the reply of the Secretary of War is received the decision will be made public.

‘*It is proper here to remark,” says the Union, ‘‘that the transfer of those between seventeen and fifty does not disband the militia organization of the State. The newly elected militia officers will retain command of the reserved militia between sixteen and seventeen and between fifty and sixty, together with such exempts from Confederate service as are not exempts from State militia duty. The reserved will remain a complete organization for police purposes and for the suppression of servile insurrection or internal troubles in the counties of their locality.”

[Marcu 31, 1864.—For Davis to Vance, in relation to affairs in North Carolina (military and civil appointments, &ec.), see Series I, Vol. LI, Part I, p. 844.

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