as you may designate. You will of course be careful to give me only such officers whose hearts are in the work.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

CIRCULAR
WAR DEP., PROV. March GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 64.
Washington, August 6, 1863.

I. The names of men who have entered the military service of the Unites States for three hears or the war, and which may by chance be drawn in the draft, shall be stricken, by the board of Enrollment of the district in which they may be drawn, from the rolls of drafted men of that district. Suitable remarks explanatory of the case shall in each instance be entered upon the rolls opposite the names thus stricken from them.

The men whose names may be so drawn and stricken from the rolls of any district shall be credited on the quota of that district, and their places shall not be filled from the 50 per cent. drawn to cover exemptions under the second section of the enrollment act.

II. Boards of enrollment are reminded that sections 13 and 17 of the enrollment act require that substitutes shall be "acceptable."

Boards must satisfy themselves in each case as to the acceptability in all respect of the substitute. All the conditions necessary to decide as to such acceptability in every case cannot be specified, but hate conditions which recruits for the service of the Unites States are required to fulfill should be observed in regard to substitutes.

III. The following opinions of Colonel Joseph Hold, Judge- Advocate-General, are published for the information of all officers of this Bureau and for their guidance in the cases specified and in analogous cases:

In case of a father claiming exemption for a son under seventh clause of second section of the enrollment act on the ground that he has already furnished two sons to the military service, one of whom is now dead.

Opinion._The exemption claimed in this case cannot be allowed under the seventh provision of the second section of the enrolling act, because that provision requires that there shall be two members of the same family in the military service at the same time to entitle the reside of the family to the privilege granted.

With regard to liability to draft of members of the Enrollment board and of sutlers.

Opinion.-It seems that under the comprehensive and imperative language of the enrolling act, sutlers, together with the members of the Enrolling Board, are necessarily subject to draft. If the latter are now in the military service it may be a ground, should they be drafted, for relieving them from the duties of the field; but not having been in the military service on the 3rd of march, the law gives them no privilege of exemption beyond that which is secured to other citizens.

In case of exemptions obtained by means of false affidavits.

Opinion.-So long as the certificate of exemption remains in force it would not be proper to hold the drafted man as liable to military service. The judgment of the Enrolling Board is declared by the law too be "final" upon the question of exemption, but it is so only while that judgment remains unreserved. The Board, like any other quasi judicial body, may revise its own action and correct any errors which it may have committed If, therefore, the decision has been based on oaths or testimonies subsequently ascertained to be false, the Board should, having first given notice to the party, proceed to reconsider its action, and if, for the reason mentioned, the judgment should be found to be erroneous, it should be set aside,