Z. B. Vance to State Of North Carolina, Executive Department, February 29, 1864

GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE,

February 29, 1864.

No. 25. Richmond, Va., February 29, 1864.

I. The following acts of Congress are published for the information of the Army:

1. JOINT RESOLUTION to declare the meaning of ‘An act allowing hospital accommodations to

sick and wounded officers.”

_ Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, That the true intent and meaning of ”An act allowing hospital accommodations to sick and wounded officers,” approved the twenty-ninth day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, were to cause to be furnished not only medicines, medical and other attendance and lodging, but subsistence also.

Approved February 18, 1864.

2. AN ACT to increase the commutation value of hospital rations.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the commutation value of rations of the sick and wounded, and of all employés in hospitals, be fixed at such rates, not to exceed two and a half dollars, as the Secretary of War shall designate.

Approved February 15, 1864.

3. AN ACT to amend ‘An act regulating the erentng of furloughs and discharges in hospitals,” approved May 1, 1863.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That an act regulating the granting of furloughs and discharges in hospitals, approved on May first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be, and the same is hereby, so amended as to provide that the period of disability therein named which entitles soldiers, sick and wounded in hospitals, to furloughs, shall be extended to sixty days, or wee in which case the Board of Examiners may grant furloughs for sixty

Approved February 17, 1864.

II. Paragraph I, General Orders, No. 69, last series, is so amended that soldiers, sick or wounded in hospitals, will not be granted furloughs unless they are likely to remain unfit for military duty for sixty days, in which case they may be furloughed for that period.

III. Hospital funds accrue in all hospitals—regimental, field, or other hospitals.

IV. Paragraph VIII, General Orders, No. 8, current series, is hereby revoked. Rations in kind (such as are issued to soldiers in the field) will be issued to all attendants in field hospitals, and, when required by the surgeon in charge, to the female attendants in general hospitals. The rations of all male attendants in general hospitals in cities and towns will be commuted, the amount to be drawn by the surgeon in charge and expended by him for their subsistence.

V. The commuted value of rations of the sick and wounded, and of all employés in regimental, field, or other hospitals, will be, until further orders, $2.50.

VI. General Orders, No. 71, last series, is amended as follows: For officers, sick or wounded in hospital, rations will be drawn, or, when required by the surgeon in charge, their value commuted at the price fixed in the preceding paragraph.

VII. The last two preceding paragraphs will not have effect in the Trans-Mississippi Department.

VIII. The following order is published in connection with paragraphs VIII and IX, General Orders, No. 22, 1864:

Officers in the Trans-Mississippi Department belonging to commands east of the Mississippi River will immediately return to their respective commands. In cases where such officers have no command, or are unassigned to any by proper authority, action under the ”Act of Congress to provide for retiring officers of the Army,” approved February 17, 1864, will be taken by the general commanding that department, who will also adopt proper measures to carry into effect these orders.

IX. Supplies of provisions, in transitu to arsenals, armories, and ordnance depots, for the use of operatives, under the order of commanding officers of the same, will not be interfered with by officers of other departments.

8. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Raleigh, February 29, 1864.

DEAR Sir: I desire to call your attention most earnestly to the difficulties and complications arising from the conscription of principals of substitutes in this State.

Chief Justice Pearson has decided recently that the law is unconstitutional, and further that the act of Congress suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus does not apply to these men. He therefore continues to grant the writ, and the execution being resisted by the enrolling officers by orders from the Conscript Bureau, the result will be a direct and unavoidable collision of State and Confederate authorities. I have taken the ground that the decision of a single judge at chambers does not possess the binding force and effect of an adjudicated case, but it only operates to discharge the individual. It certainly does this much, and until it is overruled it is final and absolute, made so expressly by the statutes of this State. It cannot be overruled except by the supreme court, which does not meet until June next. In the meantime, if the man is discharged I am bound to protect him, and if the process of the court is resisted I am forced by my oath of office to summon the military power of the State to enforce it. There is no escape from this conclusion.

An agreement was proposed by Chief Justice Pearson at Salisbury and accepted by Governor Bragg as counsel for the Government, subject to the approval or disapproval of the same, to remove one case to the supreme court by certiorari, and to bind over all others applying for writs to appear and abide the decision thus to be rendered. ‘This gave general satisfaction and had a quieting effect upon the whole State.

Since it has been understood, however, that the Confederacy would not recognize the arrangement the excitement is becoming very great, and I fear much trouble will result.

Knowing, as I trust you do, my great anxiety to avoid collision with the Confederate authorities and everything else that might tend to hinder its efficiency, yet it cannot be supposed that I am to omit a plain and obvious duty prescribed by my official oath. I therefore earnestly request that you will order a suspension of the enrollment of the principals of substitutes in North Carolina at least until time sufficient be allowed to exhaust all efforts at an amicable arrangement. Ido not know a better one than that made at Salisbury, and which, though it would deprive the Government of the services of these men until June, would yet give still greater advantages by preserving that peace and harmony between the respective governments without which all our labors will be in vain.

You will observe that I make no comment whatever upon the correctness of the chief justice’s opinions. As an executive officer I consider that I have no right to do so; neither, with all due respect, do I consider you to have any such discretion; and however unfortunate it may be to the efficient and equal working of the Government that the laws of Congress are at the mercy, so to speak, of the various judges of the various States, I submit that it is not possible to avoid it, in the absence of the Supreme Court of the Confederacy to give harmony and uniformity of construction. We can only obey the judges we now have, and even this is infinitely preferable to the assumption of judicial power by executiv> officers, and making their will the law. Hoping an early response, I am, sir,

very respectfully, yours,

Raleigh, N. C., February 29, 1864.

Hon. C. G@. MEMMINGER,

Secretary of the Treasury, Richmond, Va.:

DEAR SIR: Upon a recent visit to the county of Wilkes, in this

State, I was informed that a number of inoffensive citizens in that and

the adjacent counties had been robbed of their property and effects by