Unknown, August 16, 1864

No. 66. Richmond, August 16, 1864.

I. The extra pay allowed to men détailed from the Army under the “Act of Congress to provide for the compensation of non-commissioned officers, soldiers, sailors, and marines on detailed service,” approved June 9, 1864 (General Orders, No. 53, current series), is established as follows:

1. The extra pay for extraordinary skill or industry, or for extra work contemplated in section 2 of the law, may be, in the city of Richmond, not exceeding the amounts named in the following schedule:

Per diem. Sapermpconaeny, NOMEXCCCUMNG sala. vedo «nm. 0- ss eeath abe me See es ssemie se $10. 00 Humst-cl ase Orem aisemOUles COCCI N Ser ee saree ae = ee eee ee 7,50 [DIRE (PO) EYSEV VEG 1G VANS See eee Sisal ns Me BeBe mabe Bae eee ae clones 6.00 Second-class mechanicsee2 2) 25–2–]-2)—–==e bao pO 5.50 Third-class mechanics -.——.——– eae a: fae ee ana 5.00 Other employés showing uncommon skill or industry -…-. ————- 4.00 Skilled Clerks gone ee te eae see eRe oe cone eso eee ceuageenseteceieee 6.00

2. The extra pay allowed in this schedule shall be regarded as pay for ten hours’ work, and for all work requiring ”uncommon skill” done in other than the regular ten hours the pay shall be 50 per cent. greater than the schedule price. ale

3. This extra pay may be increased or diminished at other posts or depots where workshops are established in proportion as the market price of provisions is greater or less than in the city of Richmond, the Secretary of War and of the Navy acting conjointly as to such increase or diminution at points where there are establishments belonging to each branch of the service.

4. No restrictions will be placed on the amount of pay to be given by contractors to detailed men, save that the wages shall conform as nearly as possible to the wages received by similar classes in the employ of the Government.

5. The extra compensation for piecework, where such work is to the advantage of the Government, shall be regulated in conformity to the classification of workmen in section 1, the commanding officer, with the approval of the chief of the bureau concerned, fixing what shall be regarded as a full day’s work with ”uncommon industry.” Compensation for work turned out over and above the quantities so fixed shall be paid at the rate fixed by the ‘”‘extra compensation” for full day’s work.

6. This act is to be construed as applying to men detailed ”from the field,” and does not apply to those attached in any way to an army in the field. The allowance of $2 a day is optional with the chief of each bureau, and any less sum may be paid according to the nature of occupation and services of the detailed man. It will be paid out of the funds of the bureau employing him, and for the days in which work is actually performed, unless otherwise specially ordered by the chief of bureau. Payments to men detailed in the Medical Department, except those on duty with purveyors, will be made by the Quartermaster’s Department.

7. The clothing and rations issued to all classes of detailed and enrolled men shall be the same in kind and quantity as is issued to soldiers in the field, and shall be issued by the proper officer of the War Department in such manner and at such intervals as may be directed by the Secretary of War. Whenever, from any cause, the ration cannot be issued in kind within ten days after it is due, it shall be promptly commuted at its current value by the Commissary Department.

8. In like manner, whenever the clothing allowed cannot for any cause be furnished by the Quartermaster’s Department, it shall be commuted by said department at the current local value of such clothing, to be fixed by the Quartermaster-General.

9. The other allowances, viz, fuel and quarters, will be commuted to each detailed man according to rates fixed by the QuartermasterGeneral.

10. These orders will take effect from the 1st of August instant.

8S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

GENERAL pag ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, No. 67, Richmond, August 16, 1864.

I. The ration specified in paragraph II, General Orders, No. 59, current series, on which the hospital fund is to be reckoned, is as follows:

A half pound of bacon or pork, one pound and a half of flour or cornmeal (equal quantities of both to be used in the reckoning), and to every 100 rations, ten pounds of rice, one gallon of vinegar, one pound and a half of candles, four pounds of soap, and three pounds of salt; and at that rate for any less number of rations.

IJ. All horses, mules, wagons, harness, and saddles in the hands of officers, soldiers, or citizens not authorized to retain them, branded “”C. 8.” or “U.§8.,” or captured from or abandoned by the enemy, will be turned in at once to the nearest post quartermasters. But the rights of citizens, as established by General Orders, No. 61, 1863, are not intended to be divested by the operation of this paragraph; and persons having property under the conditions of that order, or who have property abandoned by the enemy of equivalent value to that taken from them, will not be molested without a special order.

Capt. R. V. Gaines, assistant quartermaster, in addition to his present duty, is specially charged with looking up and securing the abovedescribed property. He will report through the inspector-general of field transportation to the Quartermaster-General.

III. Section 6, paragraph I, General Orders, No. 66, current series, is thus amended:

This act is construed to apply only to soldiers detailed from the Army and to conscripts detailed by the Bureau of Conscription for service in the several departments out of the field. The extra pay is not intended for soldiers detailed for duty in the field.

IV. All men enlisted in the forces for local defense will be held responsible in the money value of arms, equipments, &c., belonging to the Government and lost by them. All such men who are employés of the Government or of contractors under the Government will have the value of lost arms, &c., deducted from their salaries or wages—the amount to be turned over by the paymaster to the ordnance officer or other officer of the command who may be accountable for the property to the Treasury. These officers are charged with the execution of this order, will account to the Treasury for the money turned over to them under it, and will make quarterly reports of arms, equipments, &¢., lost (giving names of parties losing them) to the chief of the Ordnance Bureau at Richmond. V. Paragraph I, General Orders, No. 65, current series, is thus amended:

All detailed men (including those between eighteen and forty-five years of age) will report to and be commanded by the general of reserves in the States in which they have been assigned or detailed, who will organize them into companies and battalions. It is not anticipated that they will be called out except in emergencies occurring in or near the counties of their residence; nor will service be exacted of them beyond those counties and counties contiguous thereto, except that companies hereafter formed may be required to perform service in repelling raids along a line of railroad running through their respective counties. All exempts are allowed and invited to enroll themselves with such companies, so as to be prepared to aid in defending their homes when menaced by the enemy.

VI. Section 6, paragraph I, General Orders, No. 44, current series, is amended to read as follows:

Cavalry divisions and brigades may each have an assistant adjutant and inspector general (not to exceed, for divisions, the grade of major and for brigades the grade of captain) in addition to the number allowed infantry divisions and brigades.

VII. The commutation allowed enlisted men under paragraphs III, IV, and VI, General Orders, No. 8, current series, is fixed at $2.50 per diem, to take effect August 20, 1864.

88 R R—SERIES IV, VOL IIL

VIII. Paragraph IV, General Orders, No. 96, 1863, is amended to allow sick and wounded men on furlough to draw rations or commutation therefor (at their option) from the date of their furloughs.

IX. Issues of clothing to soldiers in general hospitals located at posts where an officer of the Quartermaster’s Department is stationed will be made by the post quartermaster or a subordinate officer designated by him.

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector Generar.

SANDY GROVE, NEAR BARTOW, GA., August 16, 1864.

[Hon. G. A. TRENHOLM, Secretary of the Treasury : DEAR S1R: I see by the publication of a recent ietter from you that you not only approve the policy of having a board of commissioners in the several States to fix and publish a schedule of prices to be paid by Government, but that you also recommend the adoption of the lowest scale of prices. Iregret this. I did hope that a change of the head of the Department would bring a change of views upon this important subject, and that your counsels would be in favor of the abandonment of the policy. In my poor judgment Congress committed a great error in adopting it—an error which has produced serious injury, and is likely to produce greater injury for the future. As truth is elicited by interchange of views, pardon me for obtruding upon you a very brief statement of mine. The power of impressment is clearly conferred upon Congress by the Constitution; but it was evidently never intended that it should be exercised but from necessity. But the power of impressment does not carry with it the power to regulate prices. The Government may impress when its exigency demands it, but beyond that it cannot go. It must give just compensation for the property impressed. The impressment is confessedly an odious as well as an arbitrary exercise of power, and in all cases in which it is resorted to, where the circumstances do not clearly warrant it, it produces in the heart of the citizen more or less of bitterness and discontentment. If these positions be true, then is it not unwise for the Government to adopt and adhere to a policy which renders impressment necessary? That such has been and will continue to be the effect of these schedules of prices cannot admit of a doubt. I know that impressments had become necessary and had been resorted to before Congress adopted any law regulating the subject. That necessity resulted from the great depreciation of the Confederate currency. As long as that depreciation exists impressment to a greater or less extent will continue to be necessary. But the duty it inculeated and still inculeates upon Congress is to adopt a policy that will appreciate the currency and thus obviate the necessity of impressment. But Congress adopted precisely the opposite policy. They not only adopted impressment as a permanent means of raising supplies for the Army, but coupled with it a mode of fixing prices far below the nominal value of the articles impressed. The seale of prices is so low that citizens will not voluntarily sell to the Government, and therefore impressment is indispensable. This, therefore, is the first objection I have against the existence of the State boards. Low prices are greatly to be desired. It is a blessing to Government and people; but attempts to establish them by law always proved disastrous and always will.

The next objection that occurs to my mind is this: The maximum policy discourages production. Heretofore, when our agricultural area was very large, this was a matter of less importance. But now that it is so circumscribed as to require all our skill and energy to produce enough to support the Army and people it is vital. Every man ought to be governed by patriotism, and for the sake of our cause and country be willing to produce all that he possibly can, with or without price. Few, however, are animated by a spirit so noble and magnanimous. The great mass desire to be fully remunerated for their labor in time of war as well as peace. Indeed, I think the greed for gain was never so rampant as it is now. It isepidemic and chronic, nearly all are under its influence,and it is scarcely to be hoped that it can be cured by appeals to patriotic sentiment and duty, or suppressed by legislative devices. Wemust take things as they are and men as they are, and soshape legislation as to make the unfavorableness of the former and the selfishness of the latter subservient to the great cause in which we are struggling. Instead of being too eager to reduce prices it were better for Government to stimulate production by submitting to the prices which are incident to the condition of the currency and the abnormal condition of all the branches of trade and industry. A currency approaching the value of specie will reduce prices. Nothing else can. It is nothing but mere tinkering, financial charlatanism, to expect to appreciate Treasury notes by seizing the property of citizens and compelling them to accept as compensation half or less than half that it will command in the markets of the country. Looking to the history of the past three years, it seems to me that it does not lie in the mouth of the Government to complain of the ruling prices of everything that is for sale. It is all the legitimate fruit of war, and the great mistake of attempting to carry it on exclusively upon credit. Congress is responsible for this, not Mr. Memminger or the Cabinet. If a vigorous system of taxation had been adopted at the beginning and been kept up pari passwu with the progress of the war, our financial condition had been entirely different to-day; our currency would have been better, our public debt infinitely less, and prices correspondingly lower. If these things be true, ought the Government to complain of prices? Especially it ought not when it is remembered that it is clothed with the taxing power to the extent of controlling for the exigencies of the war the entire property of the Confederacy. If it must pay enormous prices, it can also bring back to the Treasury by taxation sufficient to meet the demand.

The unequal operation of the schedule of prices fixed by the commissioners ought to secure its unqualified condemnation. In the nature of things impressment cannot be universal, 7. e., every citizen cannot be practically subjected to it. It is applied mainly, indeed almost exclusively, to those who reside or have their plantations on or near our great lines of transportation or within striking distance from them. A large portion of the impressing officers are too lazy to extend their operations over the country generally. The consequence is that the hardships of impressment fall on comparatively few, while justice requires that all should bear their proportionate share of the burdens of the war. The hardship is great and grievous. A has 100 bushels of wheat over and above what is necessary for his family consumption. It is for sale. It will command $25 per bushel, but the

Government impresses it at from $5 to $7.50 per bushel—that is to say, he is taxed or forced to contribute to the support of Government the amount of the difference between the schedule price and the price which he could obtain in market, which in the case supposed would be from $1,750 to $2,000 on this 100 bushels of wheat. If this policy operated on allin proportion to their means there would beno injustice or inequality, but as it touches only a few it is monstrous. Nothing can be conceived which is so calculated to produce dissatisfaction and discourage production. It ought to be at once abandoned. Labor and commerce are Siamese twins; Government should interfere with them as little as possible. If it interfere at all it should always be in a line parallel with the laws of their normal action to stimulate and encourage rather than to regulate and control. And as money is the blood of commerce, and useful only to equalize the differences of value in the exchange of the productions of labor, the only legitimate duty and function of Government is to preserve its purity and health, so that its circulation may be uniform throughout the system, regulated in volume and velocity alone by the laws of supply and demand. Labor should be encouraged by paying market value for its productions. Commerce should be encouraged by knocking off fetters, rather than cramping it by legislative restrictions. The currency can be preserved from dropsy by keeping down redundancy, and in no other way; and whilst the Confederate Government has the entire field of paper circulation, it can prevent redundancy only by making taxation in some degree commensurate with expenditure; or if this cannot be done (and I believe it cannot now be done), then in relying upon its credit for the deficit of receipts to meet disbursements. That credit should not be in the form of Treasury notes, but in bonds payable at a period sufficiently remote to allow posterity to share part of the burdens, as it will reap all the blessings, of this revolution.

Hence you will perceive (I will say in passing) that I do not approve the legislation of Congress imposing heavy restrictions upon our foreign commerce, impressing all the blockade-running vessels and compelling them to share their cargoes equally with the Confederate States. It will crush out in due time that branch of business. When existing vessels shall have been destroyed or fallen into the hands of the enemy few more, if any, will be built. Men will not hazard such large amounts of private capital as are required to put steamers afloat if they are not permitted by Government to reap all the fruits of their investments. This, atleast, ismy pooropinion. It were better for the Government to give the utmost encouragement to this branch of enterprise. It might pass such laws as would make it the interest of the blockaders to bring in necessaries to the exclusion of mere luxuries, and in that way procure more copious supplies for the Army than will possibly result from existing laws and regulations.

Strictly this is a digression from the main subject of this communication, but as it is germane you will pardon it. I also beg pardon for troubling you with so long a letter—three times as long as I intended when I began to write. I thought I was done, but since writing the above I have seen the impressing officer of this county (J efferson). He informs me that he cannot get wheat at schedule price ($5 per bushel). This is not singular, when it is remembered that Confederate money is worth only about 5 cents on the dollar, making the schedule price in fact but 25 cents per bushel. How are the farmers to pay their taxes? Why not pay something like market value for supplies? The taxing power enables the Government to reimburse itself amply and fully. Why persist in a policy that produces such deep and widespread dissatisfaction? Wheat is now selling in Augusta at $30 per bushel. Why not strike a fair medium and offer at once $20 per bushel? With this the country will be satisfied. They will not be satisfied with less. And to add to the discontent the Government is not paying for what it gets. It is simply giving the planters a receipt for the produce containing a promise to pay, which promise may be redeemed in a reasonable time, or in a year, or never. This is all wrong—suicidal in policy. The Government should pay cash for what it impresses and pay fair prices. In a revolution like this it is immensely important to keep the people satisfied and in good humor. They are reasonably patriotic and willing to make sacrifices; but their forbearance may be broken down. As matters now stand, I assure you and the Secretary of War that it will be difficult to procure supplies. The surplus of wheat is small in all this regionof country. There is no surplus of meat. At the rates now offered for wheat those who have surplus will hurry it off to the markets in which they can obtain from $25 to $30 per bushel. They are doing it rapidly, and very soon it will have passed from their hands. The Secretary of War should act promptly and authorize his impressing agents to pay $20 per bushel, which is only $1 per bushel in real value. When it is notorious that in peace times wheat was never worth less than $1.25 to $2 per bushel; and with due respect and in all candor IJ will say that it is of the utmost importance that the Secretary of the Treasury should see to it that the funds be furnished to pay cash for supplies. I know what I say. Iam of the people. I know their temper, and I assure you that what I say is worthy of consideration and prompt action. Pay no regard whatever to schedule prices. They are simply ridiculous. It is mere mockery to offer $5 per bushel for wheat and $4 for corn which is now selling for $12 to $15 per bushel. I hope you will not be offended at my urgency. Ispeak what I believe to be for the good of the country. We cannot pause now to count dollars and cents too closely. The Government, like the people, must submit to the necessities of our condition.

The Senate at the last session passed a bill to levy an additional tithe to be taken at schedule prices. It was a good measure, for no matter what the prices might have been, as all came within its operation, it would have acted equally and justly. But the House refused to pass it. The House committed a great mistake. It would have supplied the Army and abolished impressment. The Senate also passed a bill to pay for supplies in specie certificates payable after the war. The House refused to agree to it and thus committed another mistake. That form of credit would have been satisfactory to the people. I voted for both measures because I thought I saw in them that which would efficiently tend to the improvement of our currency. Thus we are left to higgle with the people by arbitration over prices for supplies. My dear sir, be bold; don’t hesitate to take the responsibility to rescue us from disaster by all proper means.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,