Alexander Hamilton Papers
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Enclosure: Additions to the Recruiting Instructions, [15 March 1799]

[Enclosure]
Alterations & Additions to the Recruiting Instructions3

To Section III No foreigner by birth shall be enlisted unless he shall have become a citizen of the UStates and shall have resided at least one year in the County where he shall be enlisted.4
To Section VI These attestations must always be taken in the presence of and certified by a Commissioned officer and must be forwarded to the Inspector General (through the Commanding Officer of the Regimental circle where there is one) and must be sent by the Inspector General to the Department of War. The terms of any engagement which may be subscribed by recruits must conform to the tenor of these attestations.5
To Section VII Provided that the form of the Oath must be as above directed.6
 
To Section VIII Each District will be divided into subdistricts or quarters corresponding with the number of Companies to be raised therein. And for the present the districts will be united into Regimental circles each circle to be under the superintendence of the Commandant of the Regiment.7
To Section IX At the foot of each return which shall bear the the name of any foreigner or foreigners by birth there shall be a note or notes specifying how when and where each such foreigner became a citizen. The returns shall be forwarded to the Inspector General to be by him sent to the Department of War. While the districts are united in circles, they shall be transmitted through the respective commandants of circles & shall be open to their Inspection.8
 
To Section XIII9
To Section XIV There being now an Inspector General the orders will pass through him. They will be sent by him to the Commandants of Circles, where there are such, and the returns and reports must also in this case pass through them.10
To Section XVI The provision respecting Serjeant Major is to take effect only where there is not a Serjeant Major of the Regiment present to perform the Duty.11
To Section XIX These certificates must be transmitted to the Inspector General to be by him sent to the Secretary of War.12
To Section XXX A like receipt must be taken and transmitted for all arms accoutrements and cloaths which shall be issued to the Recruits. Every receipt taken must be in the presence of a commissioned Officer & certified by him.13
 
To Section XXI14 The monies will be furnished to the Commanding officers of Districts by the respective regimental Paymasters according to directions from the commanding Officers of the Regiments. When there is a Pay Master present in any circle the settlements will be made with him. In every case they will be only provisional & subject to revision by the Department of War.15
To Section XXIII The Commander of the District will immediately report the same to the Commander of the Circle and he to the Inspector General at his quarters and to the Commanders of all the circles who shall be nearer to his post than the Quarters of the Inspector General to the end that measures every where may be taken for the apprehension of deserters & the prevention of impositions by them16

3AD, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.

4For Article III of the 1798 edition of Rules and Regulations Respecting the Recruiting Service, see McHenry to H, February 4, 1799, note 16.

5Article VI of the 1798 edition of Rules and Regulations Respecting the Recruiting Service reads: “Every recruit, at the time of his enlisting, or within six days afterwards, is to be brought before the next justice of the peace, or the chief magistrate of any county or corporation, not being an officer of the army, or where recourse cannot be had to the civil magistrate before the judge advocate, to be sworn. In their attestations the day of enlistment as well as the day and place of attesting, must be distinctly specified according to the form annexed (No. 1). The utmost care is to be taken in filling them up correctly and legibly. No recruit is to be sent to his regiment, corps, or general rendezvous on any pretence whatsoever, whose enlistment and attestation have not been completely and finally executed conformably to the above directions, and all the attestations of recruits raised in every two weeks, unless otherwise ordered, are to be invariably transmitted to the officer commanding in the district.”

In the margin opposite this paragraph H wrote: “It will be seen how it is proposed to fill up the blanks in the Oaths. The chief point is to inlist ‘for the infantry the cavalry or the Artillery of the UStates’ without restriction to a particular corps which may embarrass.”

6For Article VII of the 1798 edition of Rules and Regulations Respecting the Recruiting Service, see H to Dayton, August 6, 1798, note 11. The “form of the Oath” to which H is referring reads:

“(No. 1.)

“I   born in   aged   feet   hair, having been enlisted on the   day of   do hereby agree to accept the present bounty and pay conformably to the act of Congress and such ration as is or shall be established by law. And I do solemnly (swear or affirm as the case may be) to bear true allegiance to the United States of America, and to serve them honestly and faithfully in the   for and during the   unless sooner discharged, against their Enemies or opposers whomever, and to observe and obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the Officers appointed over me according to the Rules and Articles of War.”

7Article VIII of the 1798 edition of Rules and Regulations Respecting the Recruiting Service reads: “The recruiting parties will be distributed in districts, and a field officer, when one can be so employed without injury to the service, stationed in each district.

“The field or other officer appointed to this duty will have the command of all recruiting parties in his district. He will give a conditional approval of the recruits whom he may judge fit for service, except in cases where regiments are so quartered, as to render it in point of distance, equally convenient for the recruits to be sent to their respective head-quarters.”

In the margin opposite this paragraph H wrote: “While the Commandant of Regiments are in a situation to attend their agency will not only be natural but extremely useful.”

8Article IX of the 1798 edition of Rules and Regulations Respecting the Recruiting Service reads: “The senior officer in each quarter shall report weekly to the officer of the district, the number and strength of the parties therein, specifying the names of the commissioned officers belonging to them, and whether they have been absent during the week, the number of recruits under his command, with the names of those enlisted since the last return, and a description of their persons, the bounty advanced, the arms, accoutrements and clothing delivered to them, and the incidents that have taken place during the week; the whole to be drawn up according to the form annexed, No. 2; and all letters, containing the returns, shall be addressed to the Secretary of War, and to the care of the officer of the district.”

9For Article XIII of the 1798 edition of Rules and Regulations Respecting the Recruiting Service, see H to Dayton, August 6, 1798, note 12. For H’s comments on Section XIII, see H to McHenry, March 10, 1799.

10Article XIV of the 1798 edition of Rules and Regulations Respecting the Recruiting Service reads: “The officers commanding districts will receive orders from the Secretary of War ’till an inspector general shall be appointed, specifying the returns (other than those mentioned) they are to send and to whom. All returns and reports are to come from the officers commanding districts, and nothing direct from the recruiting officers.”

11The relevant part of Article XVI of the 1798 edition of Rules and Regulations Respecting the Recruiting Service reads: “The officer commanding a district will be allowed to appoint a subaltern officer (not employed on the recruiting service) to do the duty of adjutant in the district with an allowance of   a day in addition to his pay and returns, and two sergeants one to act as sergeant-major and the other as clerk to the district, these sergeants to receive an allowance of   a day each.…”

12Article XIX of the 1798 edition of Rules and Regulations Respecting the Recruiting Service reads: “When recruits abscond or refuse to go before a magistrate to be attested within the time prescribed, an attested certificate of the fact is to be immediately sent to the officer commanding in the district, in order to its being transmitted to the Inspector-General or Secretary of War, and also to the Head-Quarters of the regiment or corps, as no allowance will be made to the recruiting officer for recruits so absconding or refusing to go before a magistrate, and afterwards returned as deserters, although they should be sent under an escort to their regiments, corps, or general rendezvous, unless such certificate shall have been previously received.”

13Article XXX of the 1798 edition of Rules and Regulations Respecting the Recruiting Service reads: “Each recruiting officer shall transmit monthly to the officer of the district a duplicate receipt, signed by each recruit, for the bounty he shall have received within that period. This regulation is to be strictly observed ’till the recruits have joined their respective corps, after which it is not allowable for the officer to make them any payment on account of their bounty. It is to be understood also, that no credit will be allowed to a recruiting officer in the settlement of his accounts, which is not substantiated by such receipts, thus transmitted, and that whatever part of the bounty remains due to a recruit on his union with his corps or company shall not be paid by the recruiting officer, but be stated in the first pay-roll after his arrival, and paid to him at the same time as his pay.”

14H is mistaken, for he is referring to Article XXXI rather than Article XXI of the 1798 edition of Rules and Regulations Respecting the Recruiting Service. Article XXXI reads: “The officer commanding each district will receive and be charged in the first instance, with all the monies which shall be required within his district for the recruiting service. He will, using a sound discretion, distribute such portions of the same, from time to time, to the officers of the respective recruiting parties, as the service shall demand, exacting from such recruiting officers a punctual settlement on correct vouchers at the proper periods.”

15In the margin opposite this paragraph H wrote: “It is in my judgment a very material point of order to make the Regimental Pay Master the organ of all Disbursements.”

16H is referring to Article XXXIII rather than Article XXIII of the 1798 edition of Rules and Regulations Respecting the Recruiting Service. Article XXXIII reads: “The commanding officer at each rendezvous will sign returns for the issues of all rations and other necessary supplies for the troops, and on the Saturday of each week, the returns made in the week are to be taken up, and one general return made out and signed for the rations received in the course of the week, noticing the daily issues.

“On the desertion of a recruit, besides the usual exertions and means to be employed on such occasions, the recruiting officer will transmit, as soon as possible, a description of the deserter to the field officer of the district, and will cause all descriptions of deserters that may be sent to him, to be entered in a book kept for that purpose, and will use his endeavors to discover and apprehend all deserters.”

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