759 Series III Volume IV- Serial 125 - Union Letters, Orders, Reports
Page 759 | UNION AUTHORITIES. |
not approve of such proceedings unless the exigency of the service demanded it, and if so, the Provost-Marshal-General would issue a special order. I think this arrangement at Michigan City will bear watching.
From Michigan City I went to Kendallville, the headquarters of the Tenth District, Captain Hiram Iddings, provost-marshal. I found the provost-marshal and surgeon present; the commissioner was away. The provost-marshal is a very talkative and sociable man about everything except the busihness of his office. They were drafting a sub-district; they drew the 50 per cent., but did not draw the balance of the names. I called their attention to paragraph 69 of the Regulations, which had escaped their notice, but they did not then finish the drawing in accordance with the said paragraph. Parties outside of the office drew the tickets and passed them to another outsider to read the name, while one of the clerks wrote the name and numbered the cards. Captain Iddings has a very limited knowledge of the operations of his office in detail. Any questions asked by me about the office were referred to his principal clerk.
The records of the Board of Enrollment are next to no record. There has not been an entry made since September 2, 1864.
The records of drafted men and volunteers are very well kept. The Provost-Marshal-General's orders, Adjutant-General's orders, and circulars are many of them lost or mislaid so that they cannot be found. I do not think there will be any attempt to resist in this district, although there has been considerable threatening in the southern counties, which I traveled in considerable, but failed to find any organized opposition, but, on the contrary, quiet submission as a matter of fact. I was told that Colonel Baker, late acting assistant provost-marshal-general for this State, issued an order stopping the arrest of deserters in this district unless special orders were issued for the arrest by him; such order is now in force. I do not think that the district marshals are alone to be blamed for not doing their business as they should have done it.
The acting assistant provost-marshal-general's office at Indianapolis is not a model office. Orders are issued from that office which are conflicting with the orders of the Provost- Marshal-General and with the instructions in the Regulations, some of which I herewith inclose, and marked on the margin in pencil.* The district marshals have not mustered into the service until very recently. The marshals were ordered to enlist and forward recruits to the acting assistant provost-marshal-general's office, there to be mustered. The provost-marshals have hardly any guard, while they should have from twelve to twenty- five men each, according to the location. The examinations of recruits and substitutes by the surgeons are very slight indeed, and unless they are more thorough will be likely to get a great number of poor men into the service.
None of the provost-marshals had clothing at the time I was there, although requisitions had been made for a long time. Citizens are allowed or take the liberty in this State of going into the office and rooms occupied by the clerks, engaging in conversation and discussions, sitting on the tables, & c.
I found the Seventh and Tenth Districts worse in this respect than the others. I am told by the different provost-marshals that they have received very little information from inspectors. I think at two
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* Omitted.
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