J. A. Campbell to L. Polk, January 29, 1864

Richmond, Va., January 29, 1864.

Hon. Messrs. W. P. CHILTON and DAVID CLOPTON, Members of Congress, House of Representatives :

GENTLEMEN: Your letter of the 25th instant was received to-day.* The probability is that the spring campaign will be opened at a very early day, and the necessity for filling up the ranks of the Army is urgent and imperious. Whatever resources of men that can be put in requisition must be used as soon as practicable. The law repealing the exemption of those who had furnished substitutes furnished additional and important resources, and the orders for employing these men forthwithissued. They may be seen in the morning papers. The legislation on the subject of those who are to be reserved for the care of plantations is at present in a very confused condition.

The specific reservations in the act of October 13, 1862, relative to the owners and overseers of plantations and the owners and managers of stock you will recollect. Those were broad and comprehensive provisions by law, and this Department had no difficulty in administering them. One of these was unconditionally repealed in May last, and in its place a very restricted, but still a specific, enactment, allowing an exemption in favor of a class of farmers and planters, was substituted for it upon the payment of a tax. There was besides this a clause which allowed the President to grant exemptions in districts deprived of white and slave labor indispensable to the producer of grain or provisions necessary for the support of the population remaining at home, and also on account of justice, equity, and necessity. The latter portion of this section of the act of May 1, 1863, has rarely been used with reference to the cases of owners of plantations. It has generally been applied to the condition of those who were destitute or those who have furnished to the Army several members, leaving one to take care of the families and fortunes of the remainder, or who had placed in the service minors not liable to service but competent to render efficient service, from considerations of a domestic nature, or when the family was composed of aged, helpless, unprotected persons, making the assistance of a male member. necessary and proper.

Political considerations have not entered as a controlling ingredient in the decision of the cases to be exempt because of justice, equity, or necessity.

The persons who have had large industrial interests have been encouraged to relieve themselves by putting substitutes in the Army. The right to do so has been greatly restrained by the regulations of the Department limiting the number to two for each month in a company and requiring the approval, first, of the regimental commander, and afterward of the general commanding. There has been much fraud and abuse of this privilege, but there have been a great many cases in which the privilege to put in substitutes was exercised fairly and in which the circumstances of the principal justified the act. The repeal of this act and the subjecting of the men to military service renders some legislation proper to meet the cases that arise when detriment to the interests of the country would follow for the conscription of all the persons made liable to service in consequence of the repeal.

CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 59

The Department cannot form a plan of administration until the legislation of Congress on this important subject be known, and the object of this communication is simply to place before you the meager state of legislation upon the subject which will render any plan inadequate to meet the exigencies of the country.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Assistant Secretary of War.
SURGEON-GENERAL’S OFFICE,
Richmond, Va., January 29, 1864.
Lieut. Gen. L. POLK,
Commanding, &c., Meridian, Miss.:
GENERAL: I beg leave to represent to you the necessity of perfecting, before the organization of the spring campaign, some arrangement
by which the sick and wounded sent to the rear of large armies, preceding, during, or after engagements, may be more comfortably provided for. Reason and experience conclusively show that this cannot