Conscientous objectors in the Civil War

[pamc153PA]

I came across a book entitled, "Mennonites, Amish and and the Civil War," by James O. Lehman and Steven M. Nolt, which deals with conscientious objectors during the Civil War. I haven't read the book yet, but the topic, one I hadn't really thought about in relation to the Civil War, is interesting to me.

I was surprised to learn that there was no real system for dealing with conscientious objectors either in the North or the South at the time of the Civil War. Eventually, they were allowed to buy substitutes (though many didn't like having to do this), pay $300 to not serve, or serve as nurses or others in hospitals. I was also really surprised to learn that they were not always treated with anything like respect. I read a bit about how it was not uncommon for them to be treated harshly, such as tied spread-eagle on the ground for hours, and at least in one instance, a c.o. was sentenced to death for his beliefs (the man was released after, as he faced a firing squad, he prayed aloud, and the soldier supposed to shoot him refused to do so!). It seems to be about the same in the North and the South.

My husband's family background is Mennonite, so this is a really fascinating topic, to me.

Pam

 

[Elennsar]

If I am not mistaken, it was poorly recognized as distinct from refusing to serve for less legitimate reasons (cowardice, sympathy for the enemy, etc.) - which may have had a role in the resulting treatment at times.

I'm afraid I don't know enough to add much to that, so anything you and others can share on your thoughts, interpetations, or discoveries would be heartily welcomed.

 

[larry_cockerham]

Most of the German sects remained north of the war during that period, so a bit less conflict. The Home Guard was a major problem in the southern Appalachians where many Germans did settle. I don't know that the Moravians in North Carolina, probably by far the largest German group, had particular objections to fighting aside from the normal ones. Much of my ancestry is German so this interests me as well. I've never tried to focus on this aspect of our history. Interesting.

 

[M E Wolf]

Here is what I have found so far:

O.R.--SERIES II--VOLUME III [S# 116]
SERIES II.--VOLUME III.
CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE FROM FEBRUARY 19, 1861, TO JUNE 12, 1862.--#7
APRIL 2, 1862.
Supplemental report on the case of the Tunkers [Dunkards] and Mennonites.
Since my last report I have seen the copy of the law passed by the Legislature of Virginia on the 29th of March, 1862. It exempts from military duty persons prevented from bearing arms by the tenets of the church to which they belong on condition of paying $500 and 2 per cent. on the assessed value of their taxable property, taking an oath to sustain the Confederate Government and not in any way to give aid or comfort to the enemies of the Confederate Government, with the proviso that if the person exempted is not able to pay the tax he shall be employed as teamster or in some character which will not require the actual bearing [of] arms, and surrender any arms they possess for public use.
I renew my recommendation that these persons be discharged on taking the oath of allegiance and an obligation to conform to the laws of Virginia.
S.S. BAXTER.
=============================================================
O.R.--SERIES III--VOLUME IV [S# 125]
CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, REPORTS, AND RETURNS OF THE UNION AUTHORITIES FROM JANUARY 1, 1864, TO APRIL 30, 1865.(*)--#40
ACTG. ASST. PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
WESTERN DIVISION OF PENNSYLVANIA,
Harrisburg, December 12, 1864.
Brig. Gen. JAMES B. FRY,
Provost-Marshal- General, Washington, D.C.:
GENERAL: In addition to the special inspection reports of offices of district provost-marshals and boards of enrollment, and that a clear idea may be obtained of the condition of the Bureau in this division, I have the honor to make the following report in regard to the condition of this office and of the division under my charge and also to make sundry recommendations which my short experience leads me to believe will be for the benefit of the department. The Western Division of Pennsylvania not only comprises an immense area, being five-sixths of the whole territory of the State, but from its peculiar physical and geographical features, and the nature and occupation of its inhabitants, presents greater obstacles to the provost-marshal in the execution of his duty than any other portion of the loyal States. From northeast to southwest innumerable ranges of mountains traverse the State, rendering access difficult and offering secure retreats and hiding places to deserters and delinquent drafted men. West of the western range of mountains and extending nearly to Lake Erie is a vast wilderness (nearly one-sixth of the State), covered with virgin forests of hemlock and pine. The inhabitants, living almost entirely from the proceeds of their labor as lumbermen, are ignorant and easily imposed upon by designing politicians, but are hardy, vigorous, and make good soldiers. Scarcely any roads traverse this wilderness. The mass of the population are roving in their habits, removing from place to place as the facilities for obtaining lumber prompt. On the western edge of this wilderness is the great oil region of Pennsylvania, wonderful in its growth and migratory as to its population. Underneath almost the whole division lie immense beds of coal, the working of which gives employment to the very worst class of beings, both native and foreign, to be found in this country.
The difficulties which beset the acting assistant provost-marshal-general and his assistants in the vast and sparsely settled territory, the mountains, wilderness, oil regions, and coal mines, can readily be imagined. The headquarters of the division are at Harrisburg, the most central point as regards transportation, &c. My experience so far, however, satisfies me that ease of access is not a desideratum. From all parts of the division persons are flocking to my office on frivolous errands, which the boards of their own districts can and do decide properly. The great objection to Harrisburg is that it is the State capital. Here center all the political cliques and cabals of the State, each of which thinks the acting assistant provost-marshal-general should be its creature and obey its behests. Each of these cliques has its special pets to foster, its special enemies to overcome. It is almost impossible to obtain a clerk whose appointment does not excite the ire of some good patriot. No man has ever struggled harder than myself to steer clear of these political entanglements and do my duty to the Government without fear, favor, or affection, and I fear I may safely add that no man has succeeded in making more and more bitter enemies. I am satisfied, however, that under the present condition of political feeling (and personal feeling among politicians) that no man on the face of the earth can come here and do my duties for three months without making bitter enemies of some one of the cliques.
[continued]

 

[M E Wolf]

Another class still more annoying are the small village and local politicians,
who, relying on a real or fancied influence with the leaders in this city and at Washington, expect to have all questions affecting their local interests decided to suit themselves. One small village lawyer only yesterday left me with the positive assurance that he would have me relieved immediately, because I would not alter certain orders to suit the special cases of his clients. I do not mention these things in the way of complaint---I am, I think, entirely competent to deal with these people--but to show the Provost-Marshal-General the obstacles thrown in the way of prompt and consistent execution of my duty, and also to indicate the source of and reasons for much of the opposition to officers in my position. If they cannot use us they abuse us. I do not know that this condition of things would be changed for the better by removing the office of the acting assistant provost-marshal-general to another place. In fact, though that office could be removed without detriment to the service, the offices of superintendent of volunteer recruiting service and chief mustering and disbursing officer could not, and as the same officer is head of all these offices a removal would in the main be detrimental. My offices are all contained in a large three-story and attic building. The ground floor, large front room, is the U.S. mustering office; the back room, same floor, was intended for disbursing office, but finding it more of importance to have the post adjutant and post-provost-marshal near me than the disbursing officer, I removed the latter to the office rented in another building by the quartermaster for the former, and vice versa. On the second floor is my own office and the offices of adjutant volunteer recruiting service. The remainder of the building (except one attic room used by quartermaster of volunteer recruiting service) is occupied by offices of acting assistant provost-marshal-general. The whole building is rented at $125 per month, paid by Provost-Marshal-General's Bureau. (See letter dated Provost-Marshal-General's Office, September 29, 1864.) Contracts have been forwarded. The office hours in all offices under my charge are from 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., with interval of one hour and a half for dinner. The number of working hours is increased whenever necessary at the discretion of the officers in charge. The number of clerks employed is as follows: In office of acting assistant provost-marshal-general, two at $125 per month, seven at $100, three at $75, one messenger at $30. In office of superintendent of volunteer recruiting service, one at $100, one at $90, five at $75, an assistant surgeon with pay as such, and one agent and watchman in Camp Curtin at $60 per month. In mustering office, one at $100 per month, ten at $75, and in disbursing office three at $100. All authorized by the Provost-Marshal-General. The number in the mustering office will be diminished as soon as all the rolls and work of the last rush of volunteers shall have been completed. The number in office of acting assistant provost-marshal-general will have to be increased to enable me to systematize the office and put it in complete working order.
[excerpt (but interesting look into the Prov. Office )]
On the 7th instant I had the honor to call your attention to difficulties growing out of the enlistment of substitutes for drafted men by regular recruiting officers. I respectfully recommend that an order be issued confining the acceptance of substitutes for drafted men to the boards of the districts in which the principals are drafted. I also repeat my recommendation that substitutes should be enlisted only in the Regular Army, and by the provost-marshal of the district in which the principal is enrolled; that they be sent to draft rendezvous and thence assigned to regular regiments by the Adjutant-General. I would also call your attention to section 5, act approved February 24, 1864, which provides---
That if such substitute is not liable to draft the person furnishing him shall be exempt from draft during the time for which such substitute is not liable to draft, not exceeding the term for which he was drafted.
Therefore, if a principal being drafted puts into the regular service a substitute for three years, he, the principal, having been drafted for only one year, is exempt by such substitute for only one year. This argues that Congress did not contemplate the enlistment of substitutes for drafted men into the regular service, or by other officers than the district provost-marshals, and further satisfies me that the enlistment by regular recruiting officers of substitutes for drafted men is an assumption not warranted by law or regulation. It is now much easier to get indifferent substitutes into service through regular recruiting officers than through boards of enrollment, and though the principals are warranted that such substitutes exempt them for but one year, they prefer putting them in this way. They have a hope that Congress will revise section 5 and allow them the benefit of their three-years' substitutes. A large number of cases have occurred requiring, I think, a special regulation or order. The moment a man learns that he is drafted he runs off to another county and enlists, securing the large bounty. The man is really a deserter. The question is continually presented, Where should this man be credited? He is claimed by the sub-district from which drafted on the ground that being enrolled and belonging to that sub-district it is entitled to the benefit of his service; that the sub-district paying the local bounty is obliged to know before payment of such bounty that «63 R R--SERIES III, VOL IV»the man is not a deserter from draft elsewhere. The sub-district which has paid the bounty claims him on the ground that he was mustered by a U.S. mustering officer and credited to it before they paid the bounty; that they can have no means of knowing whether or not the man is drafted elsewhere except his affidavit, which is generally taken that he is not so drafted. The difficulty comes from attempting to raise men by volunteering and draft at the same time. My opinion is that the man being in service, having been mustered by U.S. mustering officer, and received local bounty, his credit to the place paying the bounty should hold good; that the moment his term of volunteer service has expired he should be arrested as a deserter from the draft, assigned to a regiment to serve out the full year for which drafted, and credited to the sub-district in which he was originally enrolled. A complete list of names of these men should be forwarded by Provost-Marshal-General to the Adjutant-General, that they may be arrested and assigned as recommended. I further recommend most earnestly that all volunteers be required to credit themselves to the districts in which they are enrolled. I have argued this question so frequently and urgently in my communications to the department that it is unnecessary here to repeat the manifest reasons for this change. It will be opposed by rich districts of course. I respectfully call your attention to the rapid increase in Pennsylvania of non-combatant sects. The Quakers, Dunkards, and Mennonites are having more than a revival. Section 17, act approved February 24, 1864, allows these men when drafted to be exempted on payment of $300. In the first place, this sum is too little. The ordinary local bounties to volunteers are $500, the United States paying $100 more for one-year's men. Substitutes receive from $700 to $1,200. The proviso in section 17 avails nothing. A man who is coward enough to change his religion to keep out of service is not likely to have been anything but uniformly and consistently a coward. I respectfully recommend that section 17 be changed, and that these men be assigned to duty as teamsters, laborers, in any position of hard service but no danger the money clause being entirely abrogated. I respectfully recommend that section 14, act approved February 24, 1864, be rescinded. One place for examination of drafted men is sufficient for each district, however large. The provost-marshal and Board are required at headquarters all the time and cannot leave for a day without detriment to the service and injury and delay to the people.
I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
RICHARD I. DODGE,
Major Twelfth U.S. Infty., Actg. Asst. Prov. Mar. Gen.
-------------------------------------------------------------
continued

 

[M E Wolf]

O.R.--SERIES IV--VOLUME II [S# 128]
Correspondence, Orders, Reports, And Returns Of The Confederate Authorities, July 1, 1862-December 31, 1863.(*)--#5
ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Richmond, October 15, 1862.
Col. A. C. MYERS,
Quartermaster-General, Richmond:
SIR: The Secretary of War directs that you select some suitable officer of your department in this city to receive the sums paid in by members of the Dunkard Society to secure exemption from military service. This officer will perform this duty until further orders. This order will include also the members of the societies of Friends, Mennonites, and Nazarenes.Very respectfully, &c.,
S. COOPER,
Adjutant and Inspector General.
--------------------------------------------------------------
O.R.--SERIES IV--VOLUME II [S# 128]
Correspondence, Orders, Reports, And Returns Of The Confederate Authorities, July 1, 1862-December 31, 1863.(*)--#7
GENERAL ORDERS No. 82.
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Richmond, November 3, 1862.
I. The following acts of Congress and regulations are published for the information of all concerned *)
(No. 17.)
AN ACT to amend an act entitled "An act to provide further for the public defense," approved April 16, 1862.
The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President be and he is hereby authorized to call out and place in the military service of the Confederate States for three years, unless the war should have been sooner ended, all white men, who are residents of the Confederate States, between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five years, at the time the call or calls may be made, and who are not, at such time or times, legally exempted from military service, or such part thereof as, in his judgment, may be necessary to the public defense, such call or calls to be made under the provisions and according to the terms of the act to which this is an amendment: and such authority shall exist in the President during the present war, as to all persons who now are or may hereafter become eighteen years of age; and, when once enrolled, all persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five shall serve their full time:
[excerpt]
(No. 53.)
AN ACT to exempt certain persons from military duty, and to repeal an act entitled "An act to exempt certain persons from enrollment for service in the Army of the Confederate States," approved gist April, 1862.
The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That all persons who shall be held unfit for military service in the field, by reason of bodily or mental incapacity or imbecility, under rules to be prescribed by the Secretary of War; the Vice President of the Confederate States; the officers, judicial and executive, of (No. 53.)
AN ACT to exempt certain persons from military duty, and to repeal an act entitled "An act to exempt certain persons from enrollment for service in the Army of the Confederate States," approved gist April, 1862.
The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That all persons who shall be held unfit for military service in the field, by reason of bodily or mental incapacity or imbecility, under rules to be prescribed by the Secretary of War; the Vice President of the Confederate States; the officers, judicial and executive, of conducting the publication; the Public Printer, and those employed to perform the public printing for the Confederate and State governments; every minister of religion authorized to preach according to the rules of his sect and in the regular discharge of ministerial duties, and all persons who have been and now are members of the society of Friends and the association of Dunkards. Nazarenes, and Mennonites, in regular membership in their respective denominations: Provided, Members of the society of Friends, Nazarenes, Mennonites, and Dunkards shall furnish substitutes or pay a tax of five hundred dollars each into the public Treasury; all physicians who now are, and for the last five years have been, in the actual practice of their profession; all shoemakers, tanners, blacksmiths, wagon-makers, millers and their engineers, millwrights, skilled and actually employed at their regular vocation in the said trades, habitually engaged in working for the public, and whilst so actually employed: Provided, Said persons shall make oath in writing that they are so skilled and actually employed at the time at their regular vocation in one of the above trades, which affidavit shall only be prima facie evidence of the facts therein stated: Provided, further, That the exemptions herein granted to persons by reason of their peculiar mechanical or other occupation or employment, not connected with the public service, shall be subject to the condition that the products of the labor of such exempts, or of the companies and establishments with which they are connected, shall be sold and disposed of by the proprietors at prices not exceeding seventy-five per centum upon the cost of production, or within a maximum to be fixed by the Secretary of War, under such regulations as he may prescribe: And it ts further provided, That if the proprietors of any such manufacturing establishments shall be shown, upon evidence, to be submitted to, and judged of, by the Secretary of War, to have violated, or in any manner evaded the true intent and spirit of the foregoing proviso, the exemptions therein granted shall no longer be extended to them, their superintendents or operatives in said establishments, but they and each and every of them shall be forthwith enrolled under the provisions of this act, and ordered into the Confederate Army, and shall in no event, be again exempted therefrom by reason of said manufacturing establishments or employment therein; all superintendents of public hospitals, lunatic asylums, and the regular physicians, nurses and attendants therein, and the teachers employed in the institutions for the deaf, dumb and blind; in each apothecary store, now established and doing business, one apothecary in good standing, who is a practical apothecary; superintendents and operators in wool and cotton factories, paper mills, and superintendents and managers of wool-carding machines, who may be exempted by the Secretary of War: Provided, The profits of such establishments not exceed seventy-five per centum upon the cost of production, to be determined upon oath of the parties, subject to the same penalties for violation of the provisions herein contained as are hereinbefore provided in case of other manufacturing and mechanical employments; all presidents and teachers of colleges, academies, «11 R R--SERIES IV, VOL II»schools and theological seminaries, who have been regularly engaged.as such for two years previous to the passage of this act; all artisans, mechanics, and employés in the establishments of the Government for the manufacture of arms, ordnance, ordnance stores, and other munitions of war, saddles, harness and army supplies, who may be certified by the officer in charge thereof, as necessary for such establishments; also, all artisans, mechanics, and employés in the establishments of such persons as are or may be engaged under contracts with the Government in furnishing arms, ordnance, ordnance stores, and other munitions of war: Provided, That the chief of the Ordnance Bureau, or some ordnance officer authorized by him for the purpose, shall approve of the number of the operatives required in such establishments; all persons employed in the manufacture of arms or ordnance of any kind by the several States, or by contractors to furnish the same to the several State governments, whom the Governor or secretary of state thereof may certify to be necessary to the same; all persons engaged in the construction of ships, gun-boats, engines, sails, or other articles necessary to the public defense, under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy; all superintendents, managers, mechanics and miners employed in the production and manufacture of salt to the extent of twenty bushels per day, and of lead and iron, and all persons engaged in burning coke for smelting and manufacture of iron, regular miners in coal mines, and all colliers engaged in making charcoal for making pig and bar iron, not to embrace laborers, messengers, wagoners, and servants, unless employed at works conducted under the authority and by the officers or agents of a State, or in works employed in the production of iron for the Confederate States; one male citizen for every five hundred head of cattle, for every two hundred and fifty head of horses or mules, and one shepherd for every five hundred head of sheep, of such persons as are engaged exclusively in raising steck: Provided, That there is no white male adult not liable to do military duty engaged with such person in raising said stock; to secure the proper police of the country, one person, either as agent, owner or overseer on each plantation on which one white person is required to be kept by the laws or ordinances of any State, and on which there is no white male adult not liable to do military service, and in States having no such law, one person as agent, owner or overseer, on each plantation of twenty negroes, and on which there is no white male adult not liable to military service: And furthermore, For additional police for every twenty negroes on two or more plantations, within five miles of each other, and each having less than twenty negroes, and on which there is no white male adult not liable to military duty, one person, being the oldest of the owners or overseers on such plantations; and such other persons as the President shall be satisfied, on account of justice, equity or necessity, ought to be exempted, are hereby exempted from military service in the armies of the Confederate States; and also a regiment raised under and by authority of the State of Texas, for frontier defense, now in the service of said State, While in such service: Provided, further, That the exemptions herein above enumerated and granted hereby shall only continue whilst the persons exempted are actually engaged in their respective pursuits or occupations.
SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That the act entitled "An act to exempt certain persons from enrollment for service in the armies of the Confederate States," approved the twenty-first of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, is hereby repealed.
Approved October 11, 1862.
[continued]

 

[M E Wolf]

O.R.--SERIES IV--VOLUME II [S# 128]
Correspondence, Orders, Reports, And Returns Of The Confederate Authorities, July 1, 1862-December 31, 1863.(*)--#7
(No. 49.)
AN ACT to establish places of rendezvous for the examination of enrolled men.
The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That there shall be established in each county, parish or district, and in any city in a county, parish or district in the several States, a place of rendezvous for the persons in said county, district, parish or city, enrolled for military duty in the field, who shall be there examined by one or more surgeons, to be employed by the Government, to be assigned to that duty by the President on a day of which ten days' notice shall be given by said surgeon, and from day to day next, thereafter, until all who shall be in attendance for the purpose of examination shall have been examined; and the decision of said surgeons, under regulations to be established by the Secretary of War, as to the physical and mental capacity of any such person for military duty in the field, shall be final; and those only thus ascertained to be fit for military duty in the field shall be required to assemble at camps of instruction.
SEC. 2. There shall be assigned to each Congressional district in the several States, three surgeons, who shall constitute a board of examination in such district for the purpose specified in the foregoing section, any one or more of whom may act at any place of rendezvous in said district.
SEC. 3. When it shall appear to any surgeon attending such place of rendezvous by the certificate of a respectable physician resident in that county, district, parish, or city in a county, parish or district, that any enrolled person therein is unable to attend on account of sickness, it shall be the duty of said surgeon to file such certificate with the commandant of the nearest camp of instruction; and if the person named therein, shall not within a reasonable time report himself for examination at said camp of instruction, or his continued disability certified by the certificate of a respectable physician of his county, city, district or parish, he shall be held liable as absent without leave of his commanding officer.
Approved October 11, 1862.
II. Commandants of conscripts and camps of instruction.
1. An officer styled the commandant of conscripts will be appointed for each State, who will be charged with the supervision of the enrollment and disposition of conscripts. He will establish one or more camps, in which conscripts will be assembled and instructed, and may recommend for appointment a surgeon, a quartermaster, a commissary, and a requisite number of drill-masters for each camp. If more than one camp be established, he may also recommend a commandant for each camp not under his own immediate command.
2. A hospital will be established, and huts for winter quarters constructed at each camp; and all conscripts assembled at the camps will be promptly vaccinated, if it has not already been done.
3. The commandant of conscripts will require from each camp a report on the first Monday in every month, showing the expenses of the preceding month, the number of conscripts in the camp, the number received and sent away during the preceding month, the regiments, battalions, or companies to which they were sent, the number transferred to the Navy, the number of sick, the nature of their diseases, and the number of deaths. He will make a consolidated monthly report to the Adjutant and Inspector General of the Army.
4. The commandants of conscripts east of the Mississippi River will receive orders only from the War Department, and will not be interfered with by generals commanding departments or armies in the field. West of the Mississippi they will report to and receive instructions from the commanding general of the Trans-Mississippi Department, who will require them to conform as nearly as possible to this order and to the regulations prescribed for commandants east of the Mississippi. He will make a consolidated monthly report to the Adjutant and Inspector General of the Army.
5. The commandants of all regiments, battalions, squadrons, or unattached companies which were in service on the 16th of April, 1862, desiring to receive conscripts may transmit, through the Adjutant and Inspector General of the Army, statements of the strength of their commands to the commandant of conscripts in their respective States, who, unless otherwise ordered, will, as far as practicable, distribute the conscripts of the State among its regiments, battalions, and companies thereof, in proportion to their respective deficiencies. He will consult the wishes of the conscripts in assigning them to companies or regiments so far as may be consistent with their proper distribution, and will not separate men from the same county, district, or parish if it can be avoided. The same rule will be observed by the commandants of corps in assigning conscripts to companies.
6. Conscripts for cavalry will only be taken from those who furnish their own horses. No conscripts can be assigned to companies mustered into service since the 16th of April, 1862.
7. The commandants of conscripts are specially enjoined to pay unceasing attention to the health, comfort, and instruction of the conscripts under their command, and to bear in mind that the efficiency of the Army and the safety of the country depend in a great measure upon their faithful discharge of these duties.
III. Enrollment of conscripts.
All white male residents of the Confederate States between the ages of eighteen and forty, not exempted by act of Congress or not already in the service, will be enrolled. Persons liable to enrollment may be enrolled wherever they may be found, as provided by the act No. 42, herewith published.
IV. Undomiciled foreigners.
1. Foreigners not domiciled in the Confederate States are not liable to enrollment. Domicile in the Confederate States consists in residence with intention permanently to remain in those States and to abandon domicile elsewhere. Long residence, of itself, does not constitute domicile. A person may acquire domicile in less than one year, and he may not acquire it in twenty years' residence. If there be a determination to return to the native country and to retain the domicile there, no length of residence can confer domicile. The principal evidences of intention to remain are the declarations of the party, the exercise of rights of citizenship, marriage, and the acquisition of real estate; but the intention may be gathered from other facts.
2. The enrollment will be made by the enrolling officers of the State, if the Governor thereof will permit them to act under the orders of the commandant of conscripts; an application will be made by the said commandants for such permission. If it be declined, the commandant will report the fact to the Adjutant and Inspector General and ask for the employment of Confederate officers for the purpose of making enrollments. If the Governor consent, but the enrolling officers of the State be found unable or unwilling to discharge their duty efficiently, the like application will be made to the Adjutant and Inspector General; and in such event a commissioned officer for each Congressional district and a non-commissioned officer or private for each county, city, town, district, or parish will be assigned to such duty. In making such assignment officers and men disabled by wounds from active duty in the field and acquainted in the localities in which they are required to serve will, as far as practicable, be selected. The commissioned officer in each district will superintend the enrollments and collection of conscripts therein. Non-com-missioned officers and privates while so employed will be allowed pay as extra-duty men. The enrolling officers of the States, if employed, will be paid the compensation allowed by the State laws for similar services. The commanding generals of armies in the field will order such commissioned officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates as they think qualified to be enrolling officers or drill officers, and who are unfit for active service in the field, to report to the commandant of conscripts in their respective States, who will order such of them to duty as may be required, and report the remainder by letter to the commanding general as not needed for such service.
3. Enrollments for particular regiments, squadrons, battalions, and companies in service on the 16th of April, 1862, may be made by officers detailed for the purpose by the commanding general of a department or an army in the field; but such officers must report to the commandant of conscripts in their respective States, receive instructions from him, and assemble their conscripts at such point as he may designate. Conscripts enrolled without reporting to such commandant will be deemed to be enrolled for general service, and shall at any time be transferred on their own application, or on the application of commandants of corps needing conscripts, to such corps.
V. Exemptions.
The exemption act will be construed prospectively, and does not authorize the discharge of any one enrolled or in service prior to the 11th day of October, 1862.
VI. Bodily and mental infirmities.
1. Question of bodily and mental incapacity will be decided by surgeons employed for the purpose, by virtue of the act of Congress approved on the 11th of October, 1862. Three surgeons of each Congressional district will be recommended by the commandants of conscripts to the Adjutant and Inspector General for employment under the foregoing act, and the said commandants will establish in each county, city, parish, or district a place of rendezvous for the examination of conscripts enrolled therein.
2. The three surgeons employed in each Congressional district will constitute a beard of examination for the district, and one or more of them may act at any place of rendezvous therein. They shall fix days for the examination of conscripts in each county, city, parish, or district, and give at least ten days' notice thereof by publication in one or more newspapers circulating in the Congressional district and by notice posted at the principal places of public resort.
3. The enrolling officer for the county, city, parish, or district shall attend at such examinations, and enroll and send to the camp of instruction such persons as are examined and found by the surgeon to be incapable of bearing arms; the standard of bodily capacity shall be that established by General Orders, No. 58, modified by the omission of the third paragraph, which authorized the enrollment of persons not equal to all military duty. No person will be enrolled as a conscript who is not capable of bearing arms.
4. Persons deemed incapable of bearing arms shall be reported by the examining surgeon to the Board of Examination, who shall determine the questions of exemption and grant certificates thereof. The certificates shall specify whether the incapacity is temporary or permanent; and if permanent the party shall be exempt from future examination, unless specially ordered by the Board. So soon as the examining board shall be organized in any Congressional district and shall enter upon the discharge of their duties, no other mode of examination for persons in that district will be pursued, and the decision of the Examining Board will be deemed final. 5. The fact that a person has been discharged from service for physical disability or other cause does not of itself exempt from enrollment as a conscript.
6. If any enrolled person is unable to attend at the rendezvous on account of sickness he will send to the examining surgeon a certificate specifying the cause of absence and its probable duration front some respectable physician resident in the county, city, parish, or district in which the rendezvous is situated. The examining surgeon shall send the certificate to the commandant of the nearest camp of instruction, and if the person mentioned therein shall not report himself for examination at the said camp within a reasonable period, or send to the commandant of the camp a renewal of the certificate showing his continued disability, he shall be deemed absent without leave.
7. A compensation of $4 per diem while actually employed will be allowed to each of the examining surgeons, and will be paid on their certified account by the quartermaster of the nearest camp of instruction.
VII. Friends, Dunkards, Nazarenes, and Mennonites.
All persons of the above denominations in regular membership therein on the 11th day of October, 1862, shall be exempt from enrollment on furnishing a substitute, or on presenting to the enrolling officer a receipt from a bonded quartermaster for the tax of $500 imposed by act of Congress and an affidavit by the bishop, presiding elder, or other officer whose duty it is to preserve the records of membership in the denomination to which the party belongs, setting forth distinctly the fact that the party on the 11th day of October, 1862, was in regular membership with such denomination. The affidavit must be taken and certified by a justice of the peace or other officer appointed by the law of his State to administer oaths, and his authority to administer oaths must be certified by the clerk of a court of record under the seal of the court. All assistant quartermasters to whom the said tax is tendered will receive and receipt for it, and pay the same into the Treasury of the Confederate States without unreasonable delay. The enrolling officer will receive the receipt and forward it to the commandant of conscripts, by whom it will be forwarded to the Quartermaster-General, who will charge the assistant quartermaster with the amount received by him.
VIII. Provision against extortion.
1. When application for exemption is made by any shoemaker, tanner, blacksmith, wagon-maker, miller, mill engineer, or millwright not in the employment of any company or establishment, but working for himself, the party seeking exemption shall state in writing under oath that he is skilled and actually employed in his said trade; that he is habitually engaged in working for the public; that the products of his labor, while exempt from military service, shall not be sold, exchanged, or bartered for a price exceeding the cost of production and 75 per cent. profit thereon, and that he will not by any arrangement, shift, or contrivance evade the law or receive a greater price or reward than it allows.
[end of excerpt]

M. E. Wolf

 

[M E Wolf]

Search under Mennonite (Above was of Mennonites);

O.R.--SERIES II--VOLUME III [S# 116]
SERIES II.--VOLUME III.
CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, ETC., RELATING TO PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE FROM FEBRUARY 19, 1861, TO JUNE 12, 1862.--#7
RICHMOND,] March 31, 1862.
Report of S. S. Baxter of prisoners examined by him.
I have examined a number of persons, fugitives from Rockingham and Augusta Counties, who were arrested at Petersburg, in Hardy County. These men are all regular members in good standing in the Tunker [Dunkard] and Mennonite Churches. One of the tenets of those churches is that the law of God forbids shedding human blood in battle and this doctrine is uniformly taught to all their people. As all these persons are members in good standing in these churches and bear good characters as citizens and Christians I cannot doubt the sincerity of their declaration that they left home to avoid the draft of the militia and under the belief that by the draft they would be placed in a situation in which they would be compelled to violate their consciences. They all declare they had no intention to go to the enemy or remain with them. They all intended to return home as soon as the draft was over. Some of them had made exertions to procure substitutes. One man had sent the money to
Richmond to hire a substitute. Others had done much to support the families of volunteers. Some had furnished horses to the cavalry. All of them are friendly to the South and they express a willingness to contribute all their property if necessary to establish our liberties. I am informed a law will probably pass exempting these persons from military duty on payment of a pecuniary compensation. These parties assure me all who are able will cheerfully pay this compensation. Those who are unable to make the payment will cheerfully go into service as teamsters or in any employment in which they are not required to shed blood. I recommend all the persons in the annexed list(*) be discharged on taking the oath of allegiance and agreeing to submit to the laws of Virginia and the Confederate States in all things except taking arms in war.
S.S. BAXTER.
In addition to these cases I report the case of Peter L. Goode, a broken-legged man, whom I believe to be incapable of military duty, and of John Sanger, a youth of sixteen years. Both these persons were arrested. They seem to have partaken in the Tunker [Dunkard] panic and fled with the others. I believe both of them are faithful and loyal to Virginia and the Confederate States. I recommend they also be discharged from prison here on taking the oath of allegiance and reporting themselves to the proper officer of the regiment of Virginia militia to have their claims to exemption acted on.
S.S. BAXTER.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
O.R.-- SERIES I--VOLUME XIX/2 [S# 28]
OCTOBER 26-NOVEMBER 10, 1862.--Operations in Loudoun, Fauquier, and Rappahannock Counties, Va.
No. 2.--Reports of Brig. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, U.S. Army, commanding Cavalry Division.
General MARCY.
P. S.--An officer from picket has just come in to report that a Union Quaker, who escaped yesterday from the rebels, told him he saw Longstreet at Upperville day before yesterday; that he had 18,000 men, and that his soldiers said they were going to Manassas.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
O.R.-- SERIES I--VOLUME XXXIII [S# 60]
UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN NORTH CAROLINA, VIRGINIA, WEST VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, AND PENNSYLVANIA, FROM JANUARY 1 TO APRIL 30, 1864.--#9
[Inclosures.]
JANUARY 30, 1864.
DEAR SIR: It is intended to remove to Georgia very soon all the Federal prisoners; butchers and bakers to go at once. They are already notified and selected. Quaker [a Union man whom I know.--B. F. B.] knows this to be true. Are building batteries on the Danville road.
This from Quaker: Beware of new and rash council! Beware! This I send you by direction of all your friends. No attempt should be made with less than 30,000 cavalry, from 10,000 to 15,000 infantry to support them, amounting in all to 40,000 or 45,000 troops. Do not underrate their strength and desperation. Forces could probably be called into action in from five to ten days; 25,000, mostly artillery. Hoke's and Kemper's brigades gone to North Carolina; Pickett's in or about Petersburg. Three regiments of cavalry disbanded by General Lee for want of horses. Morgan is applying for 1,000 choice men for a raid.



M. E. Wolf

 

[M E Wolf]

Dear Larry_Cockerham;

No hits for Moravians or Mormans either.



Respectfully submitted,
M. E. Wolf

 

[larry_cockerham]

M.E., seems most of what you have so generously posted deals with US Army. The problem would have been with the Confederates and I suspect the treatment of these folks would have been considerably more severe.

I did a quick Google search for Mennonites and the civil war and came up with several references to this book that might be of interest to Pam.

http://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/ecom/9420.html

 

[M E Wolf]

Dear Larry_Cockerham;

Most of what I posted was from Confederate portions of the "Official Record of the Rebellion;"

The "Acts" were Confederate.

The first line can be misleading if it has Union and Confederate etc.; the second line on down often reveals the sources.



Respectfully submitted for consideration,
M. E. Wolf

 

[pamc153PA]

Thanks for the link, Larry!

And Mr. Wolf, as always, thank you for the information!

Pam

 

[captainrlm]

A few weeks ago, I met a lady who was studying Mennonites in the Shenandoah Valley (I think some or her ancestors were involved somehow) and how Phil Sheridan's campaign in the Valley affected them. Apparently, Sheridan's troops allowed many of them to move out of the Valley to avoid the damage Sheridan was going to inflict, and gave them safe passage via train to somewhere in Pennsylvania. (After the war, this particular family moved back to Virginia).

Unfortunately, I don't know the lady's name. We were talking about this at a flea market when we saw a book about Sheridan that the group I represented was selling, and she gave us this whole story about the removal (with a wagon full of goods). She has plans to write a book about this situation, but said that study of the Mennonites has increased in recent years, so you may be able to find some writing about it.

 

[M E Wolf]

Dear PamC153PA;

You're welcome ma'am.

Pleasure to be of assistance ma'am.

Respectfully submitted,
M. E. Wolf