ninety-two days, and was signalized by an enormous destruction of property. Before the war there was in the invaded provinces much sympathy with Paraguay and hostility to Brazil, which was suspected of a design to annex Uruguay, and thus to obtain absolute control of the rivers Uruguay and Parana. The contingent to the Argentine army from these provinces disbanded on the approach of the Paraguayans, and even its leader, Urquiza, was by many suspected of disloyal intentions. After the occupation of the town of Corrientes by the Paraguayans, a provisional government of three citizens of the province was appointed, and this province, as well as that of Entre Rios, declared to be annexed to Paraguay. On the withdrawal of the Paraguayans the members of the Provisional Government sold their property and left with the invading army. ARKANSAS. The reorganization of the State of Arkansas took place in 1864. The proceedings were based on the amnesty proclamation issued by President Lincoln (see ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA, 1864-Arkansas). The reorganization was recognized and sustained by the Executive Department of the Federal Government. The members elected to the 38th Congress were not admitted at the second session which commenced December, 1864. The Legislature, consisting, however, of less than the full number of members, assembled in March, 1865. On April 14th it adopted the amend ment to the Constitution of the United States relative to slavery, by a unanimous vote. The State Convention which assembled in 1864, amended the Constitution, thereby abolishing slavery in the State, and repudiating the debt contracted to aid in carrying on the war against the United States. Thus the three most important measures required by the Federal Government for the restoration of the State to the Union, have been adopted. The Legislature at the same session in April, also passed an act, disfranchising all citizens who had aided the Confederate cause subsequent to April 18th, 1864, at which time the present State Governinent was reorganized. The law was greatly discussed during the year, especially as the time approached for the Congressional elections in October. Those who opposed the act of the Legislature, urged as objections that it prescribed qualifications for voters different from those required by the State Constitution. They said the Legislature had no power to make such a change. "In our form of government all power is in the people; they meet in Convention and make the supreme law, not to be changed, save by a particular mode of procedure, which, it is admitted, has not been done in this instance. The Legislature, as the representative of all the power of the people, may do almost any thing, except that they cannot add to or take from any of the specifications in the Constitution. Any attempt to do this, is null and void; for the people agreed and declared that it so should be, when they formed and adopted the charter of their rights." It was further urged, that to require every voter to make oath that he had not aided the Confederacy since April, 1864, violated those portions of the letter and spirit of the Federal and State Constitutions, being the supreme law, which declared: That no person shall be held to answer for a capital or infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury. Nor be compelled to give evidence against himself. That no man shall be put to answer any criminal charge but by presentment, indictment, or impeach ment. That no free man shall be deprived of his freehold, liberties, or privileges but by the judgment of his peers or the laws of the land. Therefore, that the act in question, so far as it attempted to deprive a man of his privileges, without judicial conviction of crime, was contrary to the foregoing provisions; and if the Legislature exceeded its powers in the enactment of the law, it was no part of "the law of the land." Meanwhile the State Government continued to extend its operations to many counties which had been previously occupied by Southern soldiers until their disappearance on the cessation of active hostilities. The Governor, Murphy, then issued a proclamation to the people, urging them to assemble and renew their local organizations in the counties thus far disaffected. This address was favorably received, and the soon acquiesced in State Government was throughout the State. After the disbanding of the Southern forces outrages soon ceased, and at the end of two months, or early in July, the judicial districts were organized in nearly every county. Some of the courts had been in session, and most of them were prepared to meet regularly. Taxes were as quietly collected as before the war, and civil process could be executed in every part of the State. Hundreds of persons had returned from the South to the places of their former residence, and the pursuits of peace were resumed as rapidly as could be expected. As the time for the election of members of Congress approached, the Governor issued an address to the people, urging them to elect persons who could take the oath required by Congress. Three members were chosen, viz.: William Ryers, G. H. Kyle, and James M. Johnson, who subsequently appeared at Washington and presented their credentials. In October, the Secretary of State, Robert J. T. White, reported to the President the peaceful and orderly condition of affairs which existed, and the following despatch was sent to the Governor: EXECUTIVE OFFICE, WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 1865. To Gov. Murphy, Little Rock, Ark.: There will be no interference with your present organization of State government. I have learned from E. W. Gantt, Esq., and other sources, that all is working well, and you will proceed and resume the former relations with the Federal Government, and all the aid in the power of the Government will be given in restoring the State to its former relations. ANDREW JOHNSON,, President of the United States. The number of slaves in Arkansas in 1860, was 111,115. They were generally under the supervision of the Freedmen's Bureau, aided by the commander of the Department, Major-Gen. Reynolds. An inspector of that Bureau reported in July, "that in the Little Rock district about four thousand freedmen are employed under orders from the War Department; that first-class men received from twenty-five to fifty dollars per month, and first-class women from fifteen to eighteen, one-half of which was paid every two months, and the balance at the end of the year; that two thousand of them were employed by the forty-three lessees of abandoned plantations at these rates; that very harmonious relations existed between the freedmen and their employers; that the negroes were generally contented; that the lessees complained that the rate of wages was higher than was paid anywhere else in the Mississippi valley, and so high that their cotton would cost them from twenty to twenty-five cents per pound before being ready for market, and that they would not make any thing on the crop; that there were about one thousand freedmen at work for citizens of Little Rock; that large numbers were working for themselves, at remunerative wages; that the colored people are building two school-houses in the place; that there was abundant work for all who were able to labor; that fair wages were generally paid; and finally, that the condition of the freed people in Arkansas was probably better than in any other section of the country." Great destitution, however, prevailed throughout the State. In the month of May, the Federal Government issued 75,097 rations to refugees, and 46,845 to freedmen. As late as December 9th, the Governor addressed the following letters to two charitable agents, in which he thus stated the extent of the destitution: EXECUTIVE OFFICE, LITTLE ROCK, December 9, 1865. Mrs. H. W. Cobb, Sec. A. U. Commission: DEAR MADAM: Yours of October 27th was received last mail. We feel deeply grateful for the benevolent interest evinced for our suffering population. The desolations of war in our State are beyond description. Suffering and poverty are, perhaps, more general in this than the other rebel States, from the fact that during the entire war an internal and bloody strife existed between the Union element and their rebel neighbors, resulting in the exile of nearly all the loyal families who could escape, stripped of all their property, and thrown helpless on the charity of the benevolent. A great many of these families have returned, others are striving to get back to their old and once happy homes, ignorant or regard. less of the destitution that will meet them there. Besides the utter desolation that marked the track of war and battle, guerrilla bands and scouting parties have pillaged almost every neighborhood north of the Arkansas River, also in the country south of the river, lying near the Indian boundary. It would be safe to say that two-thirds of the counties in the State are in destitute circumstances, and many will suffer for food and clothing this winter and spring, unless relieved by the noble kindness of the people of the Northern States. ISAAC MURPHY, Governor of Arkansas. EXECUTIVE OFFICE, LITTLE ROCK, December 9, 1865. Rev. J. H. Leard: morning on a mission of charity in behalf of the desDEAR SIR: Understanding that you leave in the titute in Arkansas, I feel constrained to throw in my mite of encouragement and approbation of your praiseworthy services. but, still, come it must-that there are thousands suffering in Arkansas for want of food and raiment, and who, unless speedily relieved, will, in many instances, during the winter, die from the effects of hunger and cold. These people reside generally in the western part of the State, and are chiefly the widows and orphans of Union soldiers, or the help less connections and dependents of the aged and infirm, who have been reduced by robbery or exhausted in means and strength while flying from their enemies. The confession comes from me with reluctance By next harvest, with the blessing of God, I trust our people will be able to spare of the first-fruits for a thank-offering and bless the hands reached out to help them. This is designed to be sent by who intends to start for your city in the morning. and worthy of all confidence. For full particulars He is acquainted with the wants of the people, I respectfully refer you to him. With high respects, yours, ISAAC MURPHY, Governor of Arkansas. An Emigrant Aid Society was formed at the capital to induce white settlers to occupy lands in the State. Arkansas has an area of 52,198 square miles, and extends in the great valley of the Mississippi from the line of 33 to 363 degrees of north latitude, and is adapted alike to agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing. The Mississippi, along the eastern boundary, receives the water of six navigable rivers-the land is very fertile and adapted to almost all growths, from the apples and cereals of the Northwest to the cotton which is the great staple in the valleys of the Arkansas, Red, and Ouachita Rivers. Prices range from one to five dollars an acre, many large plantations having been subdivided with a view to sale since the abolition of slavery. There is plenty of wood and timber, oak, cedar, hickory, black walnut and yellow pine; in short, every material element of prosperity. ARMY, CONFEDERATE. The numbers of the Southern forces in the field were greatly reduced by various causes during the winter of 1864-'65, and their final surrender and disap pearance is described under the title ARMY OPERATIONS. ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. The year 1865, unlike its immediate predecessors, witnessed no new calls to fill up the depleted ranks of the army, but was distinguished rather by the ease and rapidity with which the immense hosts, assembled for the overthrow of the rebellion, were dispersed and merged into the active, industrial life of the country, so soon as the necessity ceased for their continuance in the service. The commencement of the year found the Government busily engaged in repairing the losses sustained in the recent bloody campaigns in Virginia and the South, and in preparing for the campaigns of the ensuing spring, which, it was rightly judged, would decide the war. The actual available force at that time must have been below 500,000 men. Fortunately, however, the Government possessed not merely the authority but the machinery to remedy the ravages of war, and was about carrying into operation the President's call of December 20, 1864, for 300,000 men, which, as has been stated in the preceding volume of this work, was in point of fact equivalent to a call for 1865, as the men authorized by it were mostly obtained in the latter year. By the terms of the call all quotas or parts of quotas not filled by February 15, 1865, were to be filled by draft. In previous years, such had been the difficulty of persuading able-bodied men to forsake remunerative occupations and submit to the hardships of military service, that quotas were rarely filled at the appointed time, and in consequence either a draft or a new call became necessary. Fortunately in the present instance several events, happening subsequent to the call, such as the disastrous rout of Hood before Nashville, the triumphant march of Sherman through Georgia and Carolina, and the capture of Fort Fisher, by foreshadowing the speedy collapse of the " Confederacy," and consequently brief and probably not very arduous terms of service, gave a great stimulus to recruiting, and by the end of February the number of men obtained by this means was so large, that the draft lost much of the terror commonly associated with it. The main features of the enrolment and conscription acts of 1863 or 1864, were given in the volume of this work for 1864 (pp. 39, 40). An additional act was passed at the second session of the Thirty-eighth Congress, which provided that, in case of the revision of any future enrolment, quotas of districts might be adjusted and apportioned to such revised enrolment; that persons mustered into the service should be credited to the place where they belong by actual residence; that substitute brokers, mustering officers, and persons liable to draft or drafted, shall be held to a strict accountability for improper persons admitted into the service through their connivance; and that all deserters from the military or naval service "shall be forever incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under the United States, or of exercising any rights of citizens thereof." Persons leaving the district in which they are enrolled, or going beyond the limits of the United States, with intent to avoid any draft into the military or naval service, duly ordered, are made liable to a similar penalty. The President, in conformity with a special provision of the act, by his proclamation of March 10th, notified deserters that they would be pardoned upon condition of returning within sixty days to their regiments, and serving for a period of time equal to their original term of enlistment. twenty-third section enacted: The That any person or persons enrolled in any subdistrict may, after notice of a draft, and before the same shall have taken place, cause to be mustered into the service of the United States such number of recruits, not subject to draft, as they may deem ex. pedient, which recruits shall stand to the credit of the persons thus causing them to be mustered in, and shall be taken as substitutes for such persons, or so many of them as may be drafted, to the extent of the number of such recruits, and in the order desig nated by the principals at the time such recruits are thus as aforesaid mustered in. 66 This provision the Attorney-General, in an elaborate opinion, decided did not conflict with that section of the act of 1864 which enables any enrolled person, before a draft, to furnish an acceptable substitute who is not liable to draft, nor at the time in the military or naval service of the United States," and provides that the person so furnishing such substitute, "shall be exempt from draft during the time for which such substitute shall not be liable to draft, not exceeding the time for which such substitute shall have been accepted." On the contrary, he was of the opinion that it provided for quite another case than that contemplated in the act of 1864, and was designed to offer inducement and present a stimulus to numbers or associations of individuals to obtain volunteer recruits for the army, and thus to encourage recruiting rather than the purchase of substitutes. The right, however, of the enrolled person, before the draft, to furnish a substitute, with the qualification above stated, and thus secure his exemption during the time for which such substitute shall have been accepted, is not in any respect disturbed. He also held that recruits, obtained in accordance with the section above quoted, are to be considered as other volunteer recruits obtained at the expense of the United States, and not as substitutes, in the ordinary sense of the term, who are furnished at the cost of the principals. Subsequent to February 15th enlistments increased rather than diminished, and official reports show that on March 1st the aggregate national military force of all arms, officers and men, was 965,591. This force was augmented on May 1st by enlistments to the number of 1,000,516 of all arms, officers and men, of whom probably about 650,000 were available for active duty. This nearly corresponds with the figures for May 1, 1864, which placed the aggregate national force at 970,710 men, of whom 662,345 were present for duty. The fact that after a year of almost unparalleled fighting and slaughter the army was recruited up to its original standard, speaks volumes in favor of the energy of the Government and the determination of the people. Of the whole number of troops in the service on May 1, 1865, 194,635 were obtained under the call of December, 1864, for 300,000 men, as will appear by the following table: 180.620 10.055 6,958 9.106 819 12,566 12,014 Substitutes for enrolled men. 12,997 Whole number raised under December call, 194,635 The general suspension of hostilities after the middle of April rendered it unnecessary to proceed with the draft, and the remainder of the 300,000 men required by this call were never put into the service. The payment of the bounties to recruits authorized in the previous year continued during the early part of 1865, until recruiting was stopped. In reply to a communication from the House Committee on military affairs of the Thirty-ninth Congress, asking for information concerning the amount required to equalize the bounties of volunteers during the rebellion, the Secretary of War presented reports from the Provost-Marshal General and the Paymaster General, showing that 1,722,590 enlisted men received bounties as follows: 896,709 at $300 cach 158,509 at $400 each 1,722,590 119,012,700 63,402,500 $300,223,500 The number of enlisted men who received no bounties was 738,372. To pay each soldier or his representative enough to bring his bounty up to $400, the largest bounty paid by the General Government, would require $684,197,300. To pay cach soldier such highest bounty, in proportion to the time of his service, would require $551,392,900. After reverting to these figures the Provost-Marshal General adds: I will take the liberty of reminding the Secretary of War that the foregoing inquiries and answers relate only to the expenditure that would result from an attempt to equalize the bounties of the General Government; and if this object were attained, even at the enormous cost shown above, it would be but a partial advance toward equalizing all the bounties, Government, State, and local, which have been paid to men for enlisting during the rebellion. The subject of requiring the General Government to assume all the bounties paid is already discussed, and if affirmatively decided, the present attempt to equalize Government bounties, if carried out, would establish a precedent for a further equalization of the expense of the Government of all bounties, and this would cost probably thousands of millions, instead of hundreds of millions. I feel justified in saying that in either attempt to equalize, but a small fraction of the money will ever reach the soldiers for whom it is intended. From returns made by the Provost-Marshal General, it appears that the aggregate quotas charged against the several States under all the calls made by the President from April 15, 1861, to April 15, 1865, amounted to 2,759,049; and that the aggregate number of men credited on the several calls and put into the service during the same period was 2,656,553, leaving a deficiency on all calls, when the war closed, of 102,496, which would have been obtained in full if recruiting and drafting had not been discontinued. This number does not embrace the "emergency men" put into the service at various times during the summer of 1863, amounting to upward of 120,000 men, who served periods of two or three weeks. The following tables, furnished to Congress by the Secretary of War, in compliance with a Illinois. Michigan.. Wisconsin Minnesota.. Iowa Missouri Kentucky Kansas.. Total.. In estimating the number of men called into the service, it has been the rule of the War Department to take into account only the whole number of men mustered, without regard to the fact that the same persons may have been previously discharged, after having been accepted and credited on previous calls. Hence, as volunteers have been accepted for terms varying from three months to three years, many thousands of persons were enlisted under two or more calls. A notable instance of this practice was the reënlistment of nearly 150,000 "veteran volunteers" in 1863 and 1864. In order, therefore, to ascertain the number of men entering the service for the first time under the different calls, the number credited should be reduced in the same ratio that the enlistments of the same persons have been repeated. To what extent this reduction must be made it is not now possible to determine with any degree of accuracy. The only fact at present settled beyond a doubt is, that the tax upon the military resources of the country has been less than would appear by considering simply the number of men embraced in the different calls for troops, or the number of credits allowed upon these calls. The colored troops continued, during 1865, to form a large and efficient portion of the army, and at the several battles before Nashville, the capture of Fort Fisher, the final operations around Richmond, and numerous minor engagements, sustained their previous wellearned reputation for bravery and soldierly qualities. Such was the popularity of this branch of the service that, in addition to the 101,950 colored soldiers reported in arms in November, 1864, 49,509 were enlisted within the next six months, which, considering the difficulties of recruiting from this class of the population, must be considered a very large number. Of these 4,244 were recruited in the insurrectionary States and credited to the other States under the provisions of the act of July 4, 1864. The whole number enlisted into the service during the war was 178,975, and the losses within the same period from sickness, desertion, or casualties incidental to military life, amounted to 68,178. On July 15, 1865, the number of this class of troops in the service was 123,156, organized as follows: One hundred and twenty regiments of infantry. Total.......... 98,938 penses, which were rapidly eating into the resources of the nation. The immediate release of half a million or more of men was also urgently needed in the agricultural districts, where in the preceding year the want of able-bodied farm laborers had been keenly felt. Accordingly, as an earnest of what was to follow, the Secretary of War issued on April 13th, four days before Lee's surrender, the day before the assassination of President Lincoln, the following notice: WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, April 13-6 P. M. The Department, after mature consideration and consultation with the Lieutenant-General upon the lowing determinations, which will be carried into results of the recent campaigns, has come to the fol effect by appropriate orders to be immediately issued. First-To stop all drafting and recruiting in the loyal States. tion, quartermaster and commissary supplies, and Second-To curtail purchases for arms, ammuni reduce the military establishment in its several branches. Third-To reduce the number of general and staff officers to the actual necessities of the service. trade and commerce, so far as may be consistent with Fourth-To remove all military restrictions upon public safety. As soon as these measures can be put in operation it will be made known by public order. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. Before the close of April, the measures contemplated in the foregoing notice began to be carried into effect, with a rapidity surprising to those who could not appreciate the perfection to which the necessary machinery had 15,662 been brought by four years of experience; and in an almost incredibly short time, the great bulk of the armies scattered over the country was returned to the peaceful pursuits of civil life. The following general order gave the necessary details: 1.311 7,245 123,156 This was the largest number of colored soldiers Number of applicants for commissions. 9,019 3,790 Total number of appointments and promotions....... 3,573 From the returns made at the bureau for colored troops, it appears that the whole number of claims for compensation on account of the enlistment of slaves from Delaware and Maryland was 3,971, of which twenty-five have been paid, amounting in the aggregate to $6,900. Two hundred and ninety-four were rejected, and the remainder are under consideration by the local boards, or the commission established by General Orders of October 3, 1863. The surrender the army under Gen. Lee, on April 9, 1865, gave the death blow to the Southern cause; and although considerable forces under Johnston, Taylor, and Kirby Smith still kept the field, the speedy termination of the war seemed so certain that the Government determined at once to curtail its immense military estalishment, and thereby reduce the ex General Orders No. 77. WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, { WASHINGTON, April 28, 1865. J For reducing the expenses of the military estab lishment, ordered, 1st, that the chiefs of the respective bureaus of this Department proceed immediately to reduce the expenses of their respective departments to what is absolutely necessary in view of an immediate reduction of the forces in the field and in garrison, and the speedy termination of hostilities, and that they severally make out statements of the reductions they deem practicable. 2. That the Quartermaster-General discharge all ocean transports not required to bring home troops in remote departments. All river and inland transportation will be discharged, except that required for the necessary supplies of troops in the field. Purchases of horses, mules, wagons, and other land transportation will be stopped, also purchases of forage, except what is required for immediate consumption. All purchases for railroad construction and transportation also to be stopped. 3. That the Commissary-General of Subsistence discontinue the purchase of supplies in his department, except such as, with what is on hand, be required for the forces in the field to the first of June next. 4. That the Chief of Ordnance stop all purchases reduce the manufacture of arms and ordnance stores of arms, ammunition, and materials therefor, and in Government Arsenals as rapidly as can be done without injury to the service. |