The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918 Page: 336
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The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
medical bureau, and Surgeon D. W. Yandell succeeded him as med-
ical director. Under these were placed all the surgeons and medi-
cal purveyors of the four districts. A system of hospitals was de-
veloped. The commander appointed all medical and military ex-
amining boards and issued the necessary invitations to persons to
appear before them. These boards became permanent in 1864,
and in Decenber were ordered to report January 1, and quarterly
thereafter, both to the medical bureau and to the medical director
at department headquarters.46
Authorities on both sides of the river realized the great impor-
tance of strengthening the conscript service in this department.
Soon after the conscription bureau was organized under Brigadier
General Greer, Smith authorized him to enroll all men of mili-
tary age. This plan for a strict enforcement of the conscription
law had been agreed to by the State authorities in the Marshall
conference and not only did the secretary of war approve the or-
der but he maintained from the first that a separate and special
branch of the conscript service should be set up in the Trans-
Mississippi. On July 25, 1863, the commander announced that
the "enrollment of conscripts is solely under the direction of the
conscript bureau, the officers thereof acting under orders from de-
partment headquarters," and all other officers were forbidden to
enroll persons of conscript age for any purpose whatever, unless
authorized by the department commander.47 All clerks and em-
ployes of military age were ordered to enroll; all able-bodied men,
except artificers and mechanics, serving in staff departments, were
instructed to join their companies, unless specially detailed by dis-
trict commanders, who had to prove the necessity for their serv-
ices. Men disabled for active service were to be assigned to the
places thus made vacant.48 The commanding general alone con-
trolled the detail of conscripts. General Smith thus exercised the
powers, in this and other bureaus in his department, which the
secretary of war would normally exercise over the whole military
area of the Confederacy.
"General Orders No. 9, March 25, 1864, Off. Recs., XXXIV, ii, 10.82;
see inspection report of J. P. Johnson to Cooper, February 16, 1864,
idem., XXII, ii, 1129-33; General Orders No. 99, Decemnber 28, 1864,
idem., XLI, iv, 1130.
4General Orders No. 31, July 25, 1863, Off. Res., XXII, ii. 948.
General Orders No. 316, August 14, 1863, Off. Recs., XXII, ii, 967336
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918, periodical, 1918; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101073/m1/342/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.