[Fourth indorsement.]

OFFICE ACTG. ASST. PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL, NORTHERN DIVISION, STATE OF NEW YORK,

Albany, August 10, 1863.

Respectfully returned to the Provost-Marshal-General's Office.

With the force now on hand additional to the three companies of the Invalid Corps ordered to report at these headquarters it is presumed that the suggestions in Captain Butler's indorsement can be carried out.

FREDK. TOWNSEND,

Major, U. S. Army, Act. Asst. Provost-Marshal-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, July 21, 1863.

J. R. FRY,

Chairman Union Leauge, Philadelphia:

All that is necessary is that the Governor of Pennsylvania should see that the company pay-rolls are properly made out and certified. This being done, the amount due is readily ascertained and can be paid, and the pay-rolls will furnish the proper official voucher of the payment. This Department will lay before Congress at the commencement of the session an estimate to cover the amount and request the appropriation. The matter has been arranged in this way in other States, and has ben productive of no delay or complaint where the Governorshave given their attention to it and seen that the musters and rolls are properly made out.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

NEWPORT, July 21, 1863.

Colonel JAMES B. FRY,

Provost-Marshal-General:

COLONEL: Your telegram of the 19th has just reached me, forwarded from Providence. I was in the city on Saturday and spent an hour at the provost-marshal's office looking over the papers, and can given conclusive reasons for the great number of exemptions allowed to those who have reported up to this time. A very large number are aliens. In this State aliens are not allowed to vote without a property qualification, and hence are on different footing from natives, and fewer of them apply for naturalization papers, which can be of no service to them without the requisite amount of property, but the enrollment being conducted on the terms of the law embraced everybody-aliens, actives, and naturalized citizens. Some thousands of the aliens were struck from the roll before the drafting commenced, but very many names were retained through want of definite knowledge as to whether they had been naturalized or not. These were, with those exempted from the several causes recited in the act, of course reported promptly and received their exemption noted thereon, are made out and will be forwarded to your office. The number of aliens and the promptness of exempts to report are two reasons, but there are others, which should not be overlooked. This