Adjutant and Inspector General Reports
1864 Report
Closing Statement
The duties of the office, during the year, have involved, in their performance, very great and unusual labor and responsibility. Increased experience has shown the necessity for absolute exactness in all matters pertaining to the enlistment of recruits, and to the troops in the field, as well as in the matter of town credits, and by enabling me more completely to systematize the work of the office, has rendered it possible to attain a degree of accuracy, in these respects, which, in the earlier part of the war, was impracticable. The preparation and preservation of the rolls and records required as the result of the great number of recruits called for and raised, the monthly settlements with the War Department of the credits due to the State, the making of accurate records of the credits due to each town, so that they could ascertain, upon inquiry, their exact standing, the examination of commutation certificates and putting them in proper form for payment by the Treasurer, the recruiting in Southern States, involving responsibility for a large amount of money, and great care in its expenditure and the necessity of absolute accuracy in accounting for it, the examination and record of the returns and Muster Rolls, received from troops in the field, the preparation of the Roster for publication, with the list of town credits, the issuing of the large number of Commissions, rendered necessary by the unusual number of casualties among commissioned officers on the battle-fields of the present campaign, the adjusting, crediting, recording and certifying to the Governor of the large number of accounts arising from the recruiting service, the consolidation and recording of returns from the Hospitals and the several State Agents, and the attention required by the extensive and varied correspondence of the office, involving, during the year, the receipt, examination, recording and answering of more than six thousand two hundred letters, and the making the proper record of the answers returned, have together involved an amount of labor, which can hardly be appreciate by any one not cognizant of the details of the office. I am indebted to the Clerks employed in the office, and especially to Henry B. Bradley and Eugene Putnam, who have been employed in the office during the year and have each had charge of important departments of the business, for assistance, by faithful and efficient labor, and zeal in the performance of their several duties, which entitle them to commendation. No better clerical force can be found.
I cannot close this Report, without expressing the obligation, which the State is under, to Brig. Gen. T. G. Pitcher, Acting Assistant Provost Marshal General, and Major William Austine, U. S. Mustering and Disbursing Officer, for their willing and efficient co-operation, in all matters, within their respective departments, affecting the interests of the State and facilitating the raising of the troops required.
The State may well be proud of what has been accomplished during the year. Thoroughly loyal to the Union and the Government, her citizens have raise, without complaint, all the troops, for which requisition has been made during the war, with a large surplus for the future, and her troops have gained for themselves and for the State a reputation which will be a source of proud remembrance so long as history shall record the deeds of the past.
PETER T. WASHBURN,
Adjutant and Inspector General.
 Accounts Against the United States
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