These lists of absentees from the reserves exhibit proof of the fact that the orders of the major-general commanding and the Secretary of War are totally disregarded in some of the most wealthy and enlightened counties in the State. Information from other companies of reserves shows a like number of absentees and deserters. No list has been furnished from one company of the regiment, as there are no officers present to furnish the list. The lowest number of absentees given from any one company is thirty-seven the highest sixty-nine. These men are all over forty-five years of age and are residents of the counties of Marengo, Greene, Sumter, Pickens, Perry, Dallas, Shelby, Bibb, Tuscaloosa, Talladega, and Randolph. Adams with a list of 351 absentees or deserters from eight companies of the Third Regiment of Alabama Reserves, whose furloughs expired on the 1st of November. In addition to the above, I have been furnished by Brig. In many of the counties of this State bordering on Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi officers of the conscription service are totally unable to enforce orders, because of the presence of armed bands of deserters and tory citizens. Within the last two months, and since Atlanta fell, no lists of deserters have been furnished from the Army of Tennessee, though information from nearly every county of the State shows a large increase in the number of deserters and absentees from the Army, so that the number may be safely set down at 6,000, making an average of nearly 300 to the county. The monthly report of this office for October, 1864, shows that 4,323 of these men have been returned to their commands, leaving 3,671 still reported as absent and in the State. These names have all been recorded since the 1st day of April, 1864. There are now on the 'Deserter book' of this office the names of 7,994 deserters or absentees from Alabama regiments in the armies of Tennessee and Northern Virginia. The unwillingness with which conscripts now take service in the Army, the tardiness with which men return to their commands at the expiration of furloughs, and the presence of a very large and increasing number of deserters from the Army, as well as the great reluctance with which citizens respond to the call for the impressment or employment of slave labor, make it absolutely necessary that officers employed in the conscription service should be supplied with an adequate and effective force to enable them to enforce orders prescribing and regulating their duties. Please understand that these men were strictly in service for law enforcement purposes and were never expected to shoot at Yankees. I have broken out a third paragraph (below) dealing strictly with regulations for organizing a squad of supporting forces for each Congressional District. Here is a report from the late war period which explains the need for supporting forces in Alabama. Rives lived in near Rehoboth in Wilcox County, Ala. Williams appears on roll with Rives' Supporting Forces, 9th Congressional District. You could contact the ADAH in Montgomery to see if anyone by his name is reported with a militia company from Wilcox County, Ala.

Al homeguard