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The Draft

Orders Relative to Alienage

War Department
Provost Marshal General's Office
Washington, D.C., July 19, 1863

CIRCULAR No. 53. -- Any person claiming exemption on the ground of alienage shall file before the Board an affidavit.

1. That he is an alien and setting forth the government of which he claims to be a subject.
2. The time when he came into the United States, and where he has resided since that date.
3. That he has never declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and has not exercised the right of suffrage by voting in any election in any State.
4. That he claims to be exempt from service on the ground that he is the subject of a foreign government, and has not declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and has never voted in any State.

The affidavit to be supported by any proof the party may offer. If the board is satisfied that the party claiming exemption is fully entitled thereto under the act of Congress, they will discharge him from draft; but if not satisfied, they shall refer the case, with the affidavit, through the Provost Marshal, for decision by the Department of State, in the mean time suspending any action in the case, until the decision of the State Department be made. The certificate of the State Department shall in such case be considered evidence of the fact whether the person is or is not subject to military duty..

James B. Fry
Provost Marshal General
Published in the St. Albans Daily Messenger, August 6, 1863.





Circulars of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau for 1863, 1864, 1865 (Adjutant General's Office, Washington, 1879), pp 57, 68.