character, and indeed in almost every respect, the principals were greatly superior to the substitutes furnished by them for the military service.

Men of character would not enlist as substitutes; hence a very unreliable and worthless class of persons offered as such, and the result was that a large number of very interior men thus entered the service and either deserted or became a burden to it; and in many instances where they deserted it was for the sole object of re-entering the service with a view to obtain an additional bounty.

Another objection to substitution was the temptation held out by it to persons to engage in the business of furnishing substitutes, and thereby fall into every species of villainy to reap the reward that the business might yield, directing their operations exclusively to their own emolument.

It is a well-established fact that persons have entered the service a number of times within a very brief period and for a large sum each time. In this fraudulent procedure I have no doubt they were often prompted and aided by a class of men known as 'substitute brokers."

And it has been equally well established that substitute brokers as a class were unscrupulous men, having an eye exclusively to money-making, and with very few exceptions felt to interest in the good of the service.

That substitute brokers and their runners oppressed the principals and robbed the substitutes as far as they could without detection is equally true.

The runners, as they were denominated, were employed by the substitute brokers to procure substitutes for their agencies, and were the most odious and detestable class of men known to the service.

The system of furnishing substitutes was denounced by the ablest officers of the American Revolution as very injurious to their cause, and I have no doubt it will be discovered to have proved equally so in the recent war.

SPECIAL AGENTS.

The following-named persons were appointed special agents in accordance with paragraph 12 of the Regulations for the Government of the Provost-Marshal-General's Bureau for 1863, and paragraph 138, Revised Regulations Provost-Marshal-General's Bureau, to wit.*

In addition to the above eighty-four men were authorized to arrest deserters, whose compensation was only the reward of $30 allowed for the apprehension and delivery of deserters. These men were authorized with the understanding that they were also to collect public property, &c., in addition to arresting deserters without any additional pay.

STATEMENT OF PUBLIC PROPERTY SEIZED.

The following is a statement of the property belonging to the Government which was gathered up by this office and restored to the proper officers, as required by section 23 of the act of March 3, 1863.*

There were many articles of little or no value recovered, in addition to what is above reported, which it is deemed impracticable to report in this statement.

*Omitted.