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Adjutant and Inspector General Reports
1865 Report
Appendix AORDERS.
Circular No. 1.
STATE OF VERMONT
Adjutant and Inspector General's Office.
Woodstock, November 26, 1864.In pursuance of communications received from the War Department, and in order that the quota of the State and of each town, upon any future call for troops, may be just and proportionably equal, the attention of the Selectmen and citizens of every town is called to the necessity of immediately correcting the United States' enrolment lists of their respective towns.
It is for the interest of every town to have stricken from the list all names improperly enrolled, because an excess of names increased the quota called for from the town; and it is equally for the interest of each person enrolled in any town to place upon the list the names of all persons in the town liable to do military duty, because the greater the number to be drawn from, the less the chance that any particular individual will be drawn. It is for the personal interest of every enrolled man, that the quota, in which he is concerned, shall not be made too large and that his own chances for draft shall not be unjustly increased. Both these objects will be attained, if all parties will aid in striking out the wrong names and putting on the right ones. Especially is this for the interest of the drafted men, who, by putting in substitutes themselves liable to draft, have secured exemption, which, by the terms of the law, holds good only until the present enrolment is exhausted in their respective towns. The law requires, that the quotas shall be assigned in proportion to the enrolment; and the fairness and justice of this mode of determining the amount of military service due from each and every section of the country cannot be doubted, if the enrolment is made as nearly perfect as it is practicable to make it.
The enrolment list of each town is open to public inspection at all times, in the office of the Provost Marshal, and should be carefully and frequently examined by the Selectmen and by citizens of the town, and the name of every man should be stricken from it, who is improperly enrolled by reason of
1st - Alienage
2nd - Non-residence.
3rd - Over age.
4th - Permanent physical disability, of such a degree as to render the person not a proper subject for enrolment under the law and regulations.
5th - Having served in the military or naval service two years during the present was and been honorably discharged.The revision and correction of the lists is a continuous duty; and the names of all persons who enlist into the military or naval service, or remove permanently from the town, or who have died, should be at once stricken from it, and the names of those added, who have arrived at the age of twenty years, all aliens who have declared their intention to become citizens, and all persons discharged from the military or naval service of the United States, who have not been in such service two years during the present war.
The prompt and faithful performance of this duty is important to the State, to each town, and to every enrolled man; and the Selectmen of the several towns are earnestly requested to give it their immediate attention, to cause the contents of this Circular to be communicated to the citizens of their respective towns, by reading it in their public meetings and causing it to be posted up in public places, and to take immediate measures to cause their enrolment list to be made as nearly perfect as possible. The several Provost Marshals have received instructions to co-operate with the Selectmen and citizens of the several towns in this respect, and will render any assistance in their power.
There should be no delay in the performance of this duty; and if performed, towns will have no reasonable cause for complaint, when quotas shall be assessed under another call for troops by the General Government.
By Order of the Governor.
PETER T. WASHBURN,
Adjutant and Inspector General.