Executive Office,
Jan. 1, 1863.
L. Thomas,
Adjutant General, U. S. A.
Sir: — In
November last Capt. Parker had in camp and was filling up a company, the
organization of which was commenced August 18. The company had been full, but
by reason of delay in getting barracks, a number of the men had left. The
county authorities of the county in which the company was being raised, in
order to encourage enlistment and thus secure the county against the liability
to a draft, were paying a county bounty of $50 to single and $75 to married
men. The men had received this county bounty, but the company was not fully
organized, nor had the men signed triplicate enlistment papers as required by
General Order No. 75, 1862.
Under these circumstances Capt. Yates, 13th U. S. Infantry,
recruited nine of these men for the regular army from the State camp, and the
Adjutant General of the State refused to permit them to go into Capt. Yates'
company. I learn that you have issued instructions to Capt. Hendershott at
Davenport, to turn the men over to Capt. Yates, taking them from the company
for which they enlisted.
I respectfully and firmly protest against this action; these
men were not liable to enlistment in the regular service, because they had not
then signed their enlistment papers; they were not liable to enlistment as
citizens, because they had then volunteered and were in camp as part of an
organized company, being raised by one of my recruiting officers to fill a
requisition made upon me by the Secretary of War.
It is bad enough to have our volunteer organizations, raised
with so much labor and mustered into the United States service, decimated to
furnish commands for men who do not enlist men under them; but if these men are
allowed to go among our incomplete organizations and take from them men who
have been recruited by State recruiting officers, and who have received large,
local bounties, it is proper I should say frankly, I shall not feel disposed to
make any great exertion for the future to procure voluntary enlistments. In
this particular case the company from which these men are taken is assigned to
one of our old regiments, and with these men lacks three of having the minimum
number. If these men are taken away this company will be still further
delayed in its completion. The officers who have raised it have spent much time
and money in raising the company, and plainly speaking it is an outrage on them
to take the men from them. Capt. Hendershott. at my request, has delayed any
action on the order issued to him till I can hear from you, and I earnestly
request a careful consideration of the matter, as your decision must seriously
affect further recruiting in the State. I cannot get men to undertake to
recruit companies, if while they are engaged in the work officers of the
regular army can seduce their men from them by promising the immediate payment
of the bounty which is delayed to them as volunteers.
Very respectfully,
SAMUEL J. KIRK WOOD.
SOURCE: Henry Warren Lathrop, The Life and Times of
Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa's War Governor, p. 237-8
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