WAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, April 7, 1864

April 7, 1864.

No. 15. Richmond, Va., April 7, 1864.

In pursuance of instructions from the Secretary of War, commandants of conscripts will grant details until the lst day of June, 1864, to all persons liable to conscription on the 10th day of April instant who are certified by the Commissary-General to be in the service of his department on the said 10th of April and as necessary thereto.

By order of Col. John S. Preston, superintendent:

C. B. DUFFIELD, Assistant Adjutant-General.

MONTGOMERY, April 7, 1864. His Excellency President JEFFERSON DAVIS, Richmond, Va.:

The act of last Congress to organize forces to serve during the war requires enrollment of persons between seventeen and eighteen and between forty-five and fifty at such times and places and under such regulations as shall be prescribed by President. Orders No. 33, from Adjutant-General Cooper, issued March 15, and received by Lieut. Col. H. C. Lockhart on the 29th, prescribes thirty days’ notice from publication of order in county or district by enrolling officer. Colonel

Lockhart issued his order on the 30th of March. Telegram from Colonel Preston of the 5th instant orders rendezvous on the 16th of April, stating that War Department construes Order No. 33 to mean notice to commence from day of its publication. The construction placed on it is absurd. This order is inconsistent with law and with order from Adjutant-General. The order cannot be enforced. It is impossible to comply with it. The attempt will only do harm—no good. Let me hear from you. THO WwATLS: Governor of Alabama.

Secretary of War for remarks. Jar 2D;

Respectfully returned to the President.

Governor Watts has misunderstood or been misinformed as to the construction of the Department. Ihave considered that companies may be at once formed of all men who have been enrolled under the General Orders, No. 33; and that to hasten enrollment reserves may be appointed at any time within the thirty days allowed by law, but that the privilege of entering the reserve organizations will only be lost by failure to enroll for thirty days after the publication of the order in each district.

J. A. SEDDON, Secretary of War.