James A. Seddon to His Excellency WILLIAM SMITH, March 29, 1864

His Excellency WILLIAM SMITH, Governor of Virginia:

Sir: Your letter of the 22d instant,* in regard to the State force in the city of Richmond, has been referred to the Conscript Bureau with this indorsement:

The men in these militia organizations come, in my judgment, under the liabilities to military service declared by the act of the Confederate Congress. They are none of them ‘troops of war” kept by a State in time of war in the contemplation of the Constitution. Being thus liable, those capable of active service in the field between the ages of eighteen and forty-five must be at once conscribed and devoted to the old organizations, either by their own selection or by assignment. Those who would belong to the reserve forces, being already in organizations similar in a great degree (though under State authority) to those contemplated for the reserve, and by their union with others not liable to conscription, holding perhaps together a larger local force than might otherwise collect, need not at once be called into Confederate service, but may be allowed to remain as they are until further orders. The claim to them cannot be surrendered, but the contingencies of the future must determine whether they may not be more usefully employed in their present organizations than in new reserve companies for Confederate service.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,