Thos. L. Bayne to Tneutenant- Colonel, April 30, 1864

Richmond, April 30, 1864.

Hon. J. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War:

Str: I have just received a communication addressed you by Colonel Bayne of the 2d instant,* and indorsed by you on the 4th, requesting a reply to certain inquiries of the Quartermaster-General respecting contracts to pay for supplies for his department in cotton. Since the late act of Congress and the regulations issued in execution thereof, it seems to me that the policy of the Government on that subject is changed, and that no new contracts should be made for the delivery of cotton in payment of contracts. It would be better to put an end to some of the existing contracts and take to the Government the benefit of the entire shipment of Government cotton. The difficulty which meets every arrangement is transportation; and inasmuch

CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 365

as only a very limited amount can be transported to the Atlantic ports, there will be a continual contest for that amount. The demands upon the Government abroad require that it should have the preference in shipments. Every contract, therefore, which gives to individuals a right to ship cotton is so far an injury to the Government. It would be better, it seems to me, for the Government to ship on its own account all the cotton which it can transport, and from the proceeds of sale to pay for supplies in money abroad. Respectfully, C. G. MEMMINGER, Secretary of the Treasury.

[Indorsement.] May 4, 1864. To Colonel Bayne for remarks. * Als aN ses Secretary.

RIcHMoND, May 2, 1864. THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA:

You are assembled under circumstances of deep interest to your country, and it is fortunate that, coming as you do newly elected by the people and familiar with the condition of the various localities, you will be the better able to devise measures adapted to meet the wants of the public service without imposing unnecessary burdens on the citizen. The brief period which has elapsed since the last adjournment of Congress has not afforded sufficient opportunity to test the efficacy of the most important laws then enacted, nor have the events occurring in the interval been such as materially to change the state of the country.

The unjust war commenced against us in violation of the rights of the States, and in usurpation of power not delegated to the Government of the United States, is still characterized by the barbarism with which it has heretofore been conducted by the enemy. Aged men, helpless women, and children appeal in vain to the humanity which should be inspired by their condition for immunity from arrest, incarceration, or banishment from their homes. Plunder and devastation of the property of non-combatants, destruction of private dwellings, and even of edifices devoted to the worship of God; expeditions organized for the sole purpose of sacking cities, consigning them to the flames, killing the unarmed inhabitants, and inflicting horrible outrages on women and children, are some of the constantly recurring atrocities of the invader. It cannot reasonably be pretended that such acts conduce to any end which their authors dare avow before the civilized world, and sooner or later Christendom must mete out to them the condemnation which such brutality deserves. The suffering thus ruthlessly inflicted upon the people of the invaded districts has served but to illustrate their patriotism. Entire unanimity and zeal for their country’s cause have been pre-eminently conspicuous among those whose sacrifices have been the greatest. So the Army, which has borne the trials and dangers of the war, which has been subjected to privations and disappointments (tests of manly fortitude

far more severe than the brief fatigues and perils of actual combat), has been the center of cheerfulness and hope. From the camp comes the voice of the soldier patriots invoking each who is at home, in the sphere he best may fill, to devote his whole energies to the support of a cause in the success of which their confidence has never faltered. They—the veterans of many a hard-fought field—tender to their country, without limit of time, a service of priceless value to us, one which posterity will hold in grateful remembrance.

In considering the state of the country the reflection is naturally suggested that this is the Third Congress of the Confederate States of America. The Provisional Government was formed, its Congress held four sessions, lived its appointed term, and passed away. The permanent Government was then organized, its different departments established, a Congress elected, which also held four sessions, served its full constitutional term, and expired. You, the Second Congress under the permanent Government, are now assembled at the time and place appointed by law for commencing your session. All these events have passed into history, notwithstanding the threat of our prompt subjugation made three years ago by a people that presume to assert a title to govern States whose separate and independent sovereignty was recognized by treaty with France and Great Britain in the last century, and remained unquestioned for nearly three generations. Yet these very governments, in disregard of duty and treaty obligations which bind them to recognize as independent Virginia and other Confederate States, persist in countenancing by moral influence, if not in aiding by unfair and partial action, the claim set up by the Executive of a foreign Government to exercise despotic sway over the States thus recognized, and treat the invasion of them by their former limited and special agent as though it were the attempt of a sovereign to suppress a rebellion against lawful authority. Ungenerous advantage has been taken of our present condition, and our rights have been violated, our vessels of war detained in ports to which they had been invited by proclamations of neutrality, and in one instance our flag also insulted where the sacred right of asylum was supposed to be secure; while one of these governments has contented itself with simply deprecating, by deferential representations, the conduct of our enemy in the constantly recurring instances of his contemptuous disregard of neutral rights and flagrant violations of public law. It may be that foreign governments, like our enemies, have mistaken our desire for peace, unreservedly expressed, for evidence of exhaustion, and have thence inferred the probability of success in the effort to subjugate or exterminate the millions of human beings who, in these States, prefer any fate to submission to their savage assailants. I see no prospect of an early change in the course heretofore pursued by these governments; but when this delusion shall have been dispelled and when our independence by the valor and fortitude of our people shall have been won against all the hostile influences combined against us, and can no longer be ignored by open foes or professed neutrals, this war will have left with its proud memories a record of many wrongs which it may not misbecome us to forgive, some for which we may not properly forbear from demanding redress. In the meantime it is enough for us to know that every avenue of negotiation is closed against US; that our enemy is making renewed and strenuous efforts for our destruction, and that the sole resource for us as a people secure in the justice of our cause and holding our liberties to be more precious

CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 367

than all other earthly possessions, is to combine and apply every available element of power for their defense and preservation.

On the subject of the exchange of prisoners I greatly regret to be unable to give you satisfactory information. The Government of the United States, while persisting in failure to execute the terms of the cartel, make occasional deliveries of prisoners and then suspend action without apparent cause. I confess my inability to comprehend their policy or purpose. The prisoners held by us, in spite of humane care, are perishing from the inevitable effects of imprisonment and the homesickness produced by the hopelessness of release from confinement. The spectacle of their suffering augments our longing desire to relieve from similar trials our own brave men who have spent so many weary months in a cruel and useless imprisonment, endured with heroic constancy. The delivery, after a suspension of some weeks, has just been resumed by the enemy; but as they give no assuranee of intent to carry out the cartel, an interruption of the exchange may recur at any moment.

The reports of the departments, herewith submitted, are referred to for full information in relation to the matters appertaining to each. There are two of them on which I deem it necessary to make special remark. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury states facts justifying the conclusion that the law passed at the last session for the purpose of withdrawing from circulation the large excess of Treasury notes heretofore issued has had the desired effect, and that by the 1st of July the amount in circulation will have been reduced to a sum not exceeding $230,000,000. It is believed to be of primary importance that no further issue of notes should take place, and that the use of the credit of the Government should be restricted to the two other modes provided by Congress, viz, the sale of bonds and the issue of certificates bearing interest for the price of supplies purchased within our limits. The law as it now stands authorizes the issue by the Treasury of new notes to the extent of two-thirds of the amount received under its provisions. The estimate of the amount funded under the law is shown to be $300,000,000, and if two-thirds of this sum be reissued we shall have an addition of $200,000,000 to our circulation, believed to be already ample for the business of the country. The addition of this large sum to the volume of the currency would be attended by disastrous effects and would produce the speedy recurrence of the evils from which the funding law has rescued the country. If our arms are crowned with the success which we have so much reason to hope, we may well expect that this war cannot be prolonged beyond the current year, and nothing would so much retard the beneficent influence of peace on all the interests of our country as the existence of a great mass of currency not redeemable in coin. With our vast resources the circulation, if restricted to its present volume, would be easily manageable, and by gradual absorption in payment of public dues would give place to the precious metals, the only basis of a currency adapted to commerce with foreign countries. In our present circumstances I know of no mode of providing for the public wants which would entail sacrifices so great as a fresh issue of Treasury notes, and IJ trust that you will concur in the propriety of absolutely forbidding any increase of those now in circulation.

Officers have been appointed and dispatched to the trans-Mississippi States and the necessary measures taken for the execution of the laws enacted to obviate delays in administering the Treasury and other Executive Departments in those States, but sufficient time has not elapsed to ascertain the results.

In relation to the most important of all subjects at the present time, the efficiency of our armies in the field, it is gratifying to assure you that the discipline and instruction of the troops have kept pace with the improvement in material and equipment. We have reason to congratulate ourselves on the results of the legislation on this subject, and on the increased administrative energy in the different bureaus of the War Department, and may not unreasonably indulge anticipations of commensurate success in the ensuing campaign.

The organization of reserves is in progress, and it is hoped they will be valuable in affording local protection without requiring details and detachments from active force.

Among the recommendations contained in the report of the Secretary of War, your attention is specially invited to those in which legislation is suggested on the following subjects, viz:

The tenure of office of the general officers in the Provisional Army, and a proper discrimination in the compensation of the different

rades. ; The provision required in aid of invalid officers who have resigned in consequence of wounds or sickness contracted while in service.

The amendment of the law which deprives officers in the field of the privilege of purchasing rations, and thus adds to their embarrassment, instead of conferring the benefit intended.

The organization of the general staff of the Army, in relation to which a special message will shortly be addressed to you, containing the reasons which compel me to withhold my approval of a bill passed by your predecessors at too late a period of the session to allow time for returning it for their reconsideration.

The necessity for an increase in the allowance now made for the transportation of officers traveling under orders.

The mode of providing officers for the execution of the conscript laws.

The means of securing greater dispatch and more regular administration of justice in examining and disposing of the records of cases reported from the courts-martial and military courts in the Army.

The recent events of the war are highly creditable to our troops, exhibiting energy and vigilance combined with the habitual gallantry which they have taught us to expect on all occasions. We have been cheered by important and valuable successes in Florida, Northern Mississippi, Western Tennessee and Kentucky, Western Louisiana, and Eastern North Carolina, reflecting the highest honor on the skill and conduct of our commanders, and on the incomparable soldiers whom it is their privilege to lead. A naval attack on Mobile was so successfully repulsed at the outer works that the attempt was abandoned, and the nine-months’ siege of Charleston has been practically suspended, leaving that noble city and its fortresses imperishable monuments to the skill and fortitude of its defenders. The armies in Northern Georgia and in Northern Virginia still oppose with unshaken front a formidable barrier to the progress of the invader, and our generals, armies, and people are animated by cheerful confidence.

Let us, then, while resolute in devoting all our energies to securing the realization of the bright auspices which encourage us, not forget that our humble and most grateful thanks are due to Him without whose guidance and protecting care all human efforts are of no avail, and to whose interposition are due the manifold successes with which we have been cheered.

CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 369

GENERAL nian ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, No. 45. Richmond, May 2, 1864.

I. To prevent straggling in the Army, commanding officers, upon the receipt of orders to move from one command to another, will forward to the general commanding to whom he is ordered to report a field return, which will exhibit the present strength of their commands. When their destination is reached a like return will be made to the same commander, upon which the number and names of the absentees and the cause of their absence will be stated. Similar returns will be forwarded to the Adjutant and Inspector General. Officers will be held strictly accountable by commanding generals for any straggling that may occur with their troops.

II. Special attention is called to the appropriation by impressment of horses for cavalry service. It is without warrant of law and will not be allowed under any circumstances whatever. Commanding generals and inspecting officers will promptly report to this office any violation of this order.

III. Prisoners captured south of Richmond will be sent direct to Andersonville, Sumter County, Ga.

IV. Special agents to make purchases or secure shipment of supplies will not be sent to any foreign port except in cases of most urgent necessity, of which necessity report will be made immediately to the Secretary of War. All purchases will be made by agents under orders from the Secretary of War, or by officers charged with the export and importation of cotton and purchase of foreign supplies, or by officers or agents acting under express authority from the general commanding the Trans-Mississippi Department.

V. All horses impressed by the Government sold or in any manner assigned to officers will be immediately restored to the Quartermaster’s Department, to be appropriated to the public service as contemplated by law. Such sales and assignments by order of a commanding general are prohibited and will not be sanctioned.

VI. Every officer hereafter appearing in behalf of a prisoner on trial before a military court or court-martial will do so only upon the condition and understanding that he is under a pledge of honor that he has not and will not receive compensation therefor.

VII. The Bureau of Conscription will proceed at once to organize into companies and cause to be mustered into service the reserve forces in the several States enrolled in pursuance of General Orders, No. 33, Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, current series. For this purpose district enrolling officers are authorized to act as mustering and inspecting officers. They will superintend the election of company officers, and forward the muster-rolls certified by them, with the certificates of election, to the commandant of conscripts for the State in which such companies may be organized, to be by him turned over to the general commanding the reserve forces.

VIII. Upon receiving the muster-rolls the general commanding the reserve forces will issue orders placing in commission and upon duty the officers named in the certificates, if competent; and, reserving copies, will forward the original rolls, with certified copies of their orders inclosed, to this Bureau for file. If there be reason to doubt the competency of an officer elect, his qualifications and fitness for commission will be inquired into and reported upon by a board to be convened by the general commanding, in accordance with General

24 R R—SERIES IV, VOL III

Orders, No. 39, Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, series of 1862.

IX. Each company of infantry must consist of at least sixty-four privates; of cavalry, sixty privates; of artillery, eighty-four privates. The muster into service of new companies in the reserve forces having a less number of privates is positively prohibited.

X. Paragraph XVII, General Orders, No. 42, current series, is thus amended:

The tobacco ration issued to enlisted men will be one pound per month.

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

RICHMOND, Va., May 2, 1864. Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, Secretary of War:

SIR: On the 26th ultimo I had the honor to address the Honorable Secretary of the Treasury asking his construction of the thirteenth regulation. My letter is returned with the following indorsement:

When cotton is delivered by the Government to a vessel for freight or supplies upon a contract approved by the Treasury Department, the whole quantity can be shipped without hindrance, and the Government only claims one-half the remaining tonnage.

I have not understood that contracts for supplies and munitions of war would require any other approval than yours, and I have supposed that such cotton as the War Department might pay for importations, or freight upon the same, would become entitled to the privilege of the thirteenth regulation upon the certificate of the agent of the War Department at the port of entry that it had been so paid. The Honorable Secretary of the Treasury’s indorsement seems to convey a different impression, and I have the honor, therefore, to request specific instructions upon these points. In this connection I beg to invite your attention to a question of some importance which it would be well to decide distinctly at once. From what appropriation will the cotton needed to pay for importations and freight on same be purchased? Will the importations and the freight be paid for out of the $20,000,000 appropriation for the purpose of making “purchases of cotton, naval stores, and other produce, under the direction of the President, to meet the engagements of the Government and to purchase necessary army, navy, and other supplies ?” Or will each bureau and department provide out of its appropriation the funds to purchase cotton to cover cost of the importations for its account? My own opinion is that the first view is the correct one. The second would entail upon the agents of the War Department the very complications it has been so long the object to getridof. Every bureau and department would have a cotton account, and it would pe difficult, if not impossible, to bring forward to the ports the proportions needed by the several bureaus and departments. The plan proposed is to have at each port one stock of cotton and one disbursing agent, who would pay for such importations and freights as were chargeable to any department of the Government. It is the simplest and best, and, as it seems to me, the one contemplated by the language

CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 371

of the $20,000,000 appropriation, as well as by the ‘regulations for the purchase, transportation, and shipment abroad of tobacco, cotton, &c.,” established by yourself and the Honorable Secretaries of the Navy and the Treasury, and approved by the President, for, manifestly, if you had not so thought, the seventh regulation, which provides for the transfer to the Treasury Department of the cotton, &c., now owned by the various departments, would have been omitted, inasmuch as such departments would have to make other purchases to pay for importations and freights.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Tneutenant- Colonel.