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300,000 More Troops Called For — A Draft Ordered.
Among last night's dispatches was the following from the war department:
WAR DEPARTMENT.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 4, 1862.
Ordered, first, that a draft of three hundred thousand militia be immediately called into the service of the United States, to serve for nine months, unless sooner discharged. The secretary of war will assign the quotas to the states, and establish regulations for the draft.
Second, that if any state shall not, by the 15th of August, furnish its quota of the additional 300,000 volunteers authorized by law, the deficiency of volunteers in that state will also be made up by a special draft from the militia. The secretary of war will establish regulations for this purpose.
Third, regulations will be prepared by the war department, and presented to the president, with the object of securing the promotion of officers of the volunteers for meritorious and distinguished services, and of preventing the nomination and appointment in the military service of incompetent and unworthy officers. The regulations will also provide for ridding the service of such incompetent persons as now hold commissions.
By the president: EDWIN M. STANTON.
Secretary of War.
By this our friends liable to military draft will see that we may immediately expect instructions from the war office in regard to the war in which it is to be done. In our paper of yesterday we gave some details in regard to such qualifications as may exclude certain persons from draft. We published it because we believed the order would come very soon, and now, before the ink of that issue is dry, the order is before us. We therefore reprint it below for the benefit of those who are to-day inquiring:
I. Physical debility is a good ground of exemption, and should, in all cases of doubt, be established to the satisfaction of the enrolling officer, by a physician's certificate, as well as the affidavit of the party. The following imperfections are proper cause of disability: Wounds of the head, which impair the faculties, or cause convulsions; serious impairment of hearing, speech, or vision; anchylosis, or active disease of any of the larger joints; the presence of pulmonary disease or organic disease of the heart; irreducible hernia; fistula in anno; large hemorrhoids; large and painful varicell, or varicose veins which extend above the knees; the loss of a limb, or a thumb and forefinger on the right hand, or any two fingers on either hand; the loss of the great toe; any marked physical imperfection which would unfit for active service.
II. The following persons are exempt under the laws of the United States. The vice-president of the United States, the officers, judicial and executive, of the government of the United States, the members of both houses of congress and their respective officers, all custom house officers, with their clerks, all postofficers and stage drivers who are employed in the care and conveyance of the mail of the postoffices of the United States, all ferrymen employed at any ferry on the post-road, all inspectors of ports, all pilots, all mariners actually employed in the sea service of any citizen or merchant within the United States.
III. Firemen in active service and those who have served as firemen are exempt, except in case of insurrection or invasion.
Our readers must understand that by this order of the secretary of war the pending call for new soldiers is for six hundred thousand. There are, in any event, three hundred thousand of these to be mustered be draft for nine months service. These are the militia recruits. In addition to these there will be drafting for the deficiency in the volunteer roll of three hundred thousand called for. What the precise number for Illinois is, will be known, perhaps to-morrow. By the 15th of this month the machinery will be put in motion. There are ten days to go upon, and within that time the volunteer list will, we believe, be not only full, but a large surplus will be recorded for volunteer service, to be deducted from the draft debit.
There is active movement here in volunteering. The discovery that the gallant young men of the country will not go with negroes as soldiers, has had a powerful effect in a single day to bring in volunteers. The president's assurance that the negroes shall not be used as soldiers, will fill up the ranks. We hope that bugbear is put to rest. We expect to see it used for electioneering purposes, but we know that it, cannot set back the army of the Union any longer. Nobody is afraid of it. There will be speeches and editorials, but nobody will notice them. The subject will be kept alive, we know, but it will be sickly hereafter till the war is over. The people will volunteer and put down the rebellion in spite of all opposition. We must have this large army now called for by the president, and our generals will handle it so as to bring peace within six months. Every true patriot will approve the call, and all will join in filling up the ranks at the earliest possible moment.