allow credits from the rolls in case they arrive before the corresponding reports are received, and that mustering officers be instructed to indorse upon their reports the name, place of credit, period of service, organization for which mustered, and date of muster of each man borne in numbers upon the report. This appears to me to be the only method by which correctness in crediting men can be attained, as, should errors be discovered in the numbers or names borne upon the report, it can be immediately referred to the proper officer for correction.

This method would require more time in making up the report, but the loss of time would be amply compensated by the facility with which discrepancies could be discovered and remedied. Credits could be satisfactorily distributed from the reports or rolls, whichever came first to hand, and all questions of credits, bounties, &c., adjusted from them, names and locations being borne upon each. Number alone afford no clue in an investigation.

Proposed amendment to section 23, act of March 3, 1865.-The following is respectfully suggested as an additional provision to section 23, act March 3, 1865: That when a call shall have been made, and the quota of sub-district assigned under such call, the percent-age of the number required to the number enrolled in said sub-district be determined, say one in six, eight, or ten, as the case may be, and that such number of men from the same sub- district, associating themselves together and furnishing an acceptable substitute, enrolled and liable to draft, or otherwise, be discharged from further liability under such call, and their names be kept out of the "draft wheel" should a draft take place.

Proposed amendment to section 14, act of March 3, 1865.-It is also recommended that section 14, act of March 3, 1865, be so far modified as to allow persons to volunteer from a sub-district after if shall have filled its quota under any call, and be credited to any locality within the district that they may select. By this action the call would be more promptly filled, and no injustice done the sub-district where the recruit resided,as, before a quota would be assigned under a succeeding call the enrollment of the sub-district would be corrected and reduced by reason of the above-mentioned class of recruits being in the service, and quotas would be assigned in accordance with such correction.

Draft.-It is not believed that any improvement can be made in the method of conducting the draft as prescribed in the Revised Regulations for the Government of the Provost-Marshal-General's Bureau, and fully set forth in my report proper, under the head of "Drafting."

Experience teaches that the several calls made by the Government since January 1, 1863, would not have been filled without resort to the draft, and that the most effective mode of recruiting was by an announcement of a call for troops, and the assignment of quotas to the respective sub-districts, followed by a notice that unless the quota was filled by volunteering within a fixed time a draft would be made.

The fifty days" grace allowed by law to fill quotas by volunteering has in no instance proved sufficient. The fear of the draft has, within the past two years, been the moving incentive in filling up the Army and Navy with volunteers and substitutes for enrolled men, as they are offered more freely because of the pressure of the draft in abeyance. As soon as a call is satisfied, all efforts to recruit for the credit of localities invariably cease, although convinced that another