1861 and 1862 will be considered and due credit given, but in regard to assigning quotas to particular towns or localities, there are no sufficient data upon which to make the necessary calculations.

The statement furnished to Colonel Lovell by the adjutant-general of Wisconsin, and by him sent to this office, gives only a portion of the number claimed to have been furnished to particular towns. For instance, in the statement referred to the First Congressional District is said to have furnished 164 enlisted men since enrollment of 1862, of which only 77 are assigned to towns, the remaining 87 being reported as persons whose exact residence cannot be ascertained. It is therefore impossible to calculate the quotas to be furnished under the present enrollment in any other way than by taking the number the present the whole Congressional district as a basis and allowing credit for any surplus which may have been furnished by that district under former calls. This will be done, and if it shall be found after quits have been thus assigned that any particular town has actually furnished a surplus of men over its previous quotas, a number of those drafted equal to this surplus will be discharged.

The only means of ascertaining whether a town has actually furnished an excess will be to have a list of the names of all the men furnished by the town claiming the excess prepared and compared with the names of all the men from that town actually mustered into the U. S. service and borne upon the muster-in- rolls on file in the office of the Adjutant-General of the Army.

This will show how many from a town have been actually furnished, while the tables giving the number claimed to have been furnished differ so much from the number known to have been mustered into the U. S. service that no just conclusion can be arrived at from them.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. B. FRY,

Provost-Marshal-General.

[JULY 31, 1863.-For General Orders, Numbers 252, War Department, Adjutant-General's Office, promulgating the President's order of July 30, 1863, in relation to retaliation, see Series II, Vol. VI, p. 163.]

BOSTON, July 31, 1863.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

Brigadier-General Devens is during me to furnish him guard for his conscript camp at Long Island. I have several new companies heavy artillery organizing for out forts, and more or less complete. One of them has 127 men. These could be used for such guard if there was authority to muster them into service; but under your instructions to mustering officer none of them can be mustered short of maximum number recruits. Please authorize Captain Dryer to muster heavy artillery companies at minimum of 110 men, with captain and two lieutenants; the other two lieutenants to be added when companies are at maximum.

JNO. A. ANDREW,

Governor of Massachusetts.

38 R R-SERIES III, VOL III