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An Act to exempt certain persons from military duty,
and to repeal an act entitles "An Act to exempt certain persons from
Enrollment for service in the Army of the Confederate States,
approved 21st April, 1862." |
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| The Congress of the Confederate States
of America do enact, That all persons who shall be held unfit for
military services 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 the Confederate and State Governments, including
postmasters appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and
such clerks in their offices as are allowed by the Postmaster General,
and now empoyed, and excluding all other postmasters, their assistants
and clerks; and except such State officers as the several States may
have declared, or may hereafter declare by law to be liable to militia
duty; the members of both Houses of the Congress of the Confederate
States, and of the Legislatures of the several States, and their
respective officers; all clerks now in the offices of the Confederate
and State Governments authorized by law, receiving salaries or fees; all
volunteer troops, heretofore raised by any State since the passage of
the act entitled "a Act further to provide for the public defence,"
approved April 16th, 1862, while such troops shall be in active service
under State authority: Provided, That this exemption shall not
apply to any person who was liable to be called into service by virtue
of said act of April sixteenth, 1862; all pilots and persons engaged in
the merchant marine service; the president, superintendents, conductors,
treasurer, chief clerk, engineers, managers, station agents, section
masters, two expert track hands to each section of eight miles, and
mechanics in the active service and employment of railroad companies,
not to embrace laborers, porters, and messengers; the president, general
superintendent and operators of telegraph companies, the local
superintendent and operators of said companies, not to exceed four in
number at any locality, but that of the seat of Government of the
Confederate States; the president, superintendents, captains, engineers,
chief clerk and mechanics in the active service and employment of all
companies engaged in river and canal navigation, and all captains of
boats and engineers therein employed; one editor of each newspaper now
being published, and such employees as the editor or proprietor may
certify, upon oath, to be indispensable for 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 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 Mennonists, in regular membership in their respective
denominations: Provided, members of the society substitutes or
pay a tax of $500 each into the public treasury; all physicians who now
are, and for the last five years have been, in actual practice of their
profession; all shoe-makers, tanners, black-smiths, 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 as their regular vocation in one of the
above trades, which affidavit shall only be prima facia 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 or 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 be it 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 one 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 employments 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 shall 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 herein before provided, in case of other manufacturing
and mechanical employments; all presidents and teachers of colleges,
academies, schools, and theological seminaries, who have been regularly
engaged as such for two years previous to 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 artizans, mechanics, and employees 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, gunboats, engines, sails,
or other articles necessary to the public defence, 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 manufacturing 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 stock:
Provided, That there is no male adult not liable to do military duty
engaged with such person in raising 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, 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 plantation; 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; also a
regiment raised under and by authority of the State of Texas, for
frontier defence, 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. |
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