accompanied by the principal, nor be permitted to see the substitute after enlistment.

With few exceptions these brokers are the most reckless and disreputable calls of men to be found in the country, and were they allowed free access to the recruits or substitutes after enlistment they would entice and aid them to desert by the use of every artifice a fertile imagination could invent.

Bounties.-It is respectfully recommended that instead of paying large local bounties "in hand" to recruits or substitutes, it be paid into the Treasury of the United States, and that provisions be made for its payment by installments extending through the term of service for which the man enlists, and that the amount retained and unpaid should be forfeited to the United States in the event of desertion, and thus avoiding the inducements to desert for the purpose of jumping other bounties, to those who enlist merely for bounty with a determination to escape on the first opportunity.

While Government bounties only were paid the men enlisted were of a good class and cold be relied upon, but as soon as large local bounties were offered and paid in advance a set of desperate characters presented themselves who would enlist and "jump" bounties as often as opportunities presented. A man now in the Albany penitentiary undergoing and imprisonment of four years confessed to having "jumped the bounty" thirty-two times.

General Orders, Numbers 305, Adjutant-General's Office, series of 1864, goes far toward preventing desertion up to the time that the recruit arrives at his regiment and receives his first payment. with the first payment he receives the bounty (retained until the recruit arrives at his regiment, and paid at the time he receives his first payment, as required by the terms of the order), and with this usually large amount of money at his disposal, if of the class alluded to, he deserts immediately.

Reporting and distributing credits.-Under existing orders monthly reports of commissaries of musters and muster-in rolls are forwarded to the acting assistant provost-marshal-general of the State or division to which the musters are to be credited, and he (the acting assistant provost-marshal-general), after taking the necessary date for credit, is required to transfer the reports and rolls to the adjutant-general of the State.

Credits are given from the reports, verified from the muster-in rolls.

It has frequently happened that the roll arrived before the report, or vice versa. As a general rule the roll seldom accompanies the report. To remedy this objection it is respectfully recommended that, if practicable, the commissaries of musters should be required to forward the rolls and reports together; otherwise there is no way of verification, as the credits are distributed as soon as reports are received by the acting assistant provost-marshal-general.

As the reports and accompanying rolls are both transferred to the adjutant-general of the State, there is nothing left in the office of the acting assistant provost-marshal-general to support his accounts in the matter of distribution of credits, or for reference to settle questions concerning disputed credits.

The muster-in rolls contain all the information required by the State authorities, and it is recommended that in case it is impracticable for the commissary of musters to forward the report and rolls together, the report be retained by the acting assistant provost-marshal-general for his voucher, and that discretion b given him to