August 31, another law showed the failure of the deputies to appreciate the qualifications of officers for staff duty. It authorized the Confederate President, on the application and recommendation of a general of the Confederate States Army, the highest grade known in the service, to appoint from civil life persons to the staff of such officer, having the same rank and pay as if appointed from the regular army. It should be observed that in this law the deputies again ignored the qualifications of officers of volunteers and regulars, most of whom had been in the field for nearly six months.

The next law, also approved August 31, abandoned the false economy of stripping one company in each regiment or battalion of a subaltern for the position of adjutant by authorizing the adjutants of “regiments and legions" to be appointed in addition to the subaltern officers attached to companies. The term "legion" shows in a marked manner the conservatism of military legislation. It was first employed during the Revolution, chiefly as applicable to mounted troops or partisan rangers. Afterwards, in 1792, signifying a combination of troops of all arms, it became the recognized organization of the Army of the United States; thence, although shortly after abandoned, it passed into the laws relating to the militia, where it was preserved till the Rebellion, when it found its way into the military laws enacted by the Provisional Congress.

Another law, approved August 31, authorized and required the secretary of war to make arrangements for the reception and forwarding of clothes, shoes, blankets, and other articles provided for the troops by private contribution. The last law of the third session of the Provisional Congress, relating to the personnel of the army, approved August 31, authorized chaplains the same rations as privates. A previous law had reduced their pay from $85 to $50 per month.

Among the resolutions of the third session of the Provisional Congress, one of July 30 appropriated the sum of $5,278.88, paid into the treasury as donations from the churches on the last fast day, as a fund for the use of the soldiers and officers wounded at the last battle of Manassas. Another resolution of August 31 recognized the impossibility of volunteer cavalry providing their own outfits, by authorizing the Secretary of War to furnish the necessary equipment for volunteer companies accepted "for the war."

A third resolution directed that such drill-masters as under the authority of some of the States now attached to various regiments should, on their own application be granted an honorable discharge.

FOURTH SESSION PROVISIONAL CONGRESS.

The fourth session of the Confederate Provisional Congress began at Richmond September 3, 1861, and ended the same day.

This session was caused by the failure of a bill to reach the Confederate President for his signature before the adjournment of the Provisional Congress, whereby he was to be authorized to continue the appointments made by him in the military and naval service during the past session and during the subsequent recess of the Congress. The

a The Legion of the United States existed from March 5, 1792, to November 1,

session was called by proclamation of September 2, reenacted the bill; also passed another act substituting the word "such" for the word "the" in a law relating to postage; which acts were approved on September 3, when the fourth session adjourned.

FIFTH SESSION PROVISIONAL CONGRESS.

The fifth session of the Confederate Provisional Congress began at Richmond November 18, 1861, and ended February 18, 1862.

The first act of any importance of the fifth and last session of the Provisional Congress, approved December 10, 1861, authorized the Secretary of War to appoint an Assistant Secretary of War, with a salary of $3,000 per annum. Another act, December 10, authorized the Confederate President to appoint a chief bugler or principal musician to each regiment in the Provisional Army.

BOUNTIES, FURLOUGHS, REENLISTMENT, AND RECRUITMENT.

The next military law, approved December 11, was entitled— An act providing for the granting of bounty and furloughs to privates and noncommissioned officers in the Provisional Army.

In reality it should have been entitled "An act to disorganize and dissolve the Provisional Army." The object of the law was to retrieve the stereotyped blunder of short enlistments. To this end the first section prescribed that a bounty of $50 should be granted to all enlisted men in the Provisional Army who would serve continuously for three years, or the war. This sum was to be paid to the twelve-months' men enlisting at the end of their first year's service, as also the men already in the service for three years. To recruits or new volunteers for three years, or the war, the bounty was to be paid at the time of entry into service. As a further inducement to reenlist, the second section authorized the Secretary of War to grant furloughs, not exceeding sixty days, with transportation home and back, to all twelve months' men, who, prior to the expiration of their term of service, would enlist for the ensuing two years, or for three years or for the war, the furloughs to be issued by the Secretary of War at such times and in such numbers as he might deem most compatible with the public interest. In lieu of a furlough the commutation value of transportation home and back was offered to anyone who would reenlist as above.

The third section extended the provisions of the act to all troops enlisted for the term of twelve months, or were in the service of any State, who, under the act, might enlist for more than two years in the Confederate service. The fourth section, subversive to all discipline and subordination, prescribed that all troops revolunteering or reenlisting should, at the expiration of their original enlistments, have the power to reorganize themselves into companies and elect their company officers, the companies to—

have the power to organize themselves into battallions or regiments and to elect their field officers.

As if to insure the fact that, with the design to make every company officer the creature of his subordinates, it was enacted in the same section that "after the first election all vacancies shall be filled by promotion from the company, battalion, or regiment in which such va

provided, that whenever a vacancy shall occur, whether by promotion or otherwise, in the lowest grade of commissioned officers of a company, said vacancy shall always be filled by election.

The next provision of the section was offered as a concession to the States. It reads:

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That all troops revolunteering or reenlisting shall, at the expiration of their present term of service, have the power to reorganize themselves into companies and elect their officers, and said companies shall have the power to organize themselves into battalions or regiments and elect their field officers; and after the first election, all vacancies shall be filled by promotion from the company, battalion, or regiment in which such vacancies may occur: Provided, That whenever a vacancy shall occur, whether by promotion or otherwise, in the lowest grade of commissioned officers of a company, said vacancy shall always be filled by election: And further provided, That in the case of troops which have been regularly enlisted into the service of any particular State prior to the formation of the Confederacy, and which have by such States been turned over to the Confederate government, the officers shall not be elected, but appointed and promoted in the same manner and by the same authority as they have heretofore been appointed and promoted. a

The fatal consequences of conceding the right to the men to elect their officers should have been apparent to the merest tyro in military legislation; not only did it force the officer who hoped to remain in the service to employ the low arts of the demagogue, but after a battle in which perhaps all the officers and best noncommissioned officers of a company had been swept away, it permitted the surviving enlisted men to raise to the grade of captain, over the heads of all the lieutenants of the regiment, a man who might not be able to read or write, or possess a single qualification for command. In a law that could sanction in the military service such a monstrosity as the principle of election, one should not seek for any provision for ridding the service of worthless and incompetent officers. Such a provision on its face would, in part, have neutralized the supposed benefits of election, and had the removal or dismissal fallen upon a seditious officer, popular with his company, it might have induced a mutiny and revolt.

December 19, a law was approved relative to recruitment. It authorized the Secretary of War to adopt measures for recruiting and enlisting men for companies "in the service for the war" depleted by deaths and discharges, and further ignoring the utility of depots and territorial recruitments, authorized him "to detail the company commissioned officers for the above duty in such numbers, and at such times as, in his opinion, would best comport with the public service," the officers thus detailed to recruit for their respective companies. It will be seen from the above that had the Secretary of War chosen to exercise his authority at the outset of a campaign, neither the Confederate President nor a military commander could have countermanded his orders without openly violating the law.

December 24, the sum of $57,948,706 was appropriated for the Department of War, and $4,280,000 for the Department of the Navy. The same day the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to issue $50,000,000 of treasury notes and $30,000,000 of bonds at any interest not exceeding 6 per cent per annum, payable semiannually, the bonds to be exchanged with the notes above issued.

December 31, the Confederate President was authorized to appoint in the provisional army not exceeding 50 officers of engineers, with the rank of captain, their commissions to expire at the close of the war.

Be it enacted by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, That the aboveentitled act be so amended that, in addition to the power therein granted, the President of the Confederate States be, and he is hereby, authorized to confer temporary rank and command upon officers of the Confederate Army, on duty in the several Bureaus of the Adjutant and Inspector General, Chief of Engineers, and Chief of Ordnance, to cease at the end of the war; the same to be held without prejudice to the positions in said Army.

January 11, 1862, the sum of $14,400,000 was appropriated for the pay of bounty and transportation of 150,000 men, under an act providing for the reenlistment of twelve-months' men; also $450,000 to defray expenses under the act authorizing recruiting.

As the volunteers at the beginning would have enlisted as readily "for the war" as "for twelve months," this appropriation of nearly $15,000,000 represented only in a small degree the cost of a single blunder of military legislation.

January 16, 1862, the appointment of an Assistant Secretary of War was vested in the Confederate President, by and with the advice and consent of Congress, instead, as before, with the Secretary of War.

Still relying on the principle of voluntary enlistments, the next act related to recruiting old regiments and raising new ones. The first section of the act of January 22, 1862, authorized the Confederate President under this act of May 8, 1861, the first act authorizing enlistments for the war, to accept volunteers singly as well as in companies, battalions, and regiments.

The second section repeated the absurdity of the bounty and furlough act by extending the principle of election, not only to all the field and company officers raised under the act, but by applying the rule of promotion established in the bounty and furlough act in case of vacancy to all troops raised under the act of May 8, 1861. As a partial offset to the principle of election, the right to commission officers was again taken from the States and vested in the Confederate President, who was authorized

to depart from the prescribed rule of promotion in favor of any person specially distinguished by his commanding general for extraordinary merit or some signal act of military skill or gallantry. a

The third section prescribed that any vacancies occurring in any companies mustered into service for three years or for the war might be filled by volunteers, and, subject to the approval of the brigade commander, further authorized the commanders of squadrons, battalions, and regiments to detail a recruiting party for each company, to consist of one officer, one noncommissioned officer, and one or more privates, who were to recruit their companies to not exceeding 125 men (rank and file), each recruit in joining his company to receive a bounty of $50. This law, it will be seen, whether intentionally or not, revoked the dangerous power previously granted to the Secretary of War and made the brigade commanders in the field the judges as to whether recruiting parties, with safety to the service, could be detached from their regiments.

The fourth section authorized the Confederate President

to appoint and commission persons as field officers or captains to raise regiments, squadrons, battalions, or companies, the officers not to receive pay until their respective commands should be fully organized; enlistments under the captains not to be obligatory unless the number should be sufficient to constitute a company.

By another act of January 22, the Confederate President was authorized to appoint in

the provisional army and the volunteer corps officers of artillery above the rank of captain and without reference to the number of batteries under the actual command of the officers so appointed, not to exceed in number, however, one brigadier-general for every 80 guns, one colonel for every 40 guns, one lieutenant-colonel for every 24 guns, and one major for every 16 guns.

Again reverting to the neglected principle of confederation and State sovereignty, the law of January 23, 1862, so modified the first section of the law of March 6, 1861, as to authorize the Confederate President— to call upon the several States, in his discretion, for any number of troops not exceeding in the aggregate the number heretofore authorized, to serve for the term of three years or during the war.

SECTION 2. In making such requisitions the president shall take into consideration the number of troops from each State already enlisted for the war at the time of the requisition, and shall as far as practicable equalize the same amongst the States according to their respective white populations.

January 22, 1862, the sum of $850,000 was appropriated for ordnance stores, and to provide for the defense of the Mississippi.

A third act, approved January 27, 1862, returned to the subject of volunteer enlistment and recruitment. The first section authorized all companies of volunteers then in the service of the Confederate States to be recruited by enlisting or receiving volunteers "for three years or the war," to a number not exceeding 125, rank and file." It also guaranteed to the new recruits the principle of selecting their officers, by the provision that the companies so recruited shall, at the expiration of the term of service of the original company, elect their commissioned officers. The vacancies thereafter in each company, as under the bounty and furlough act, were to be filled by the promotion of the officers of the company, vacancies in the lowest grade to be filled by election.

The second section gave to—

the colonel or commanding officer of the several regiments, battalions, or squadrons enlisted for twelve months

authority to detail one commissioned officer, and not exceeding two privates from each company, to recruit for their respective companies, all recruits on joining their companies to receive a bounty of $50.

The third section, as if with a view to give the new and reenlisted volunteers the utmost liberty in electing their officers and controlling their future organization, prescribed:

When all the companies comprising the regiment, battalion, or squadron, as aforesaid, shall, by recruiting as aforesaid, or by reenlistment or by recruiting as aforesaid, have attained at the date of the expiration of the term of service of the organized companies the number required by law for a company, the number and designation of such regiment, battalion, or squadron, may continue, or such of said companies as are complete at that date, may reorganize into new regiments, battalions, or squadrons, or attach themselves to other regiments, battalions, or squadrons, and in all such cases the field officers shall be elected, and vacancies thereafter occurring in such field officers shall be filled by promotion, as directed by the act aforesaid.a

The fifth section, in case the recruits and reenlisted men should fall below the minimum number prescribed for a company, authorize them to consolidate with other companies, in default of which they were to be assigned or distributed to other companies from the same State.