April 8, 1863, Galveston Weekly News
Galveston, March 30, 1863.
The Relief Committee have distributed nearly $2500 worth of brown domestics, prints &c., among the families of soldiers and widows. For these goods no charge was made, but if any of the recipients felt disposed to make a voluntary payment they were at liberty to do so according to their means, in this manner about $400 have been realized which will be expended in the purchase of further supplies.
Upwards of two hundred families have been relieved but there are still a great many applicants who really require assistance. Lately there have been some few cases of drunkenness on the streets, contrary to orders from the Provost Marshal; parties have found means to smuggle liquor into the city, which is calculated to produce a pernicious effect. Capt. Trueheart and his officers are on the alert to catch the offenders. The former has issued a notice, which threatens to banish from the Island any person who shall be detected “in the introduction, sale or distribution of vinous or spirituous liquors without a proper permit.”
From ten to twelve hundred dollars worth of liquor neatly packed up in small boxes, has been seized by order of the Provost Marshal, and as the consignee refuses to receive it Capt. Trueheart will have to dispose of it to the best advantage.
The enrolling office for conscripts has been regularly besieged throughout the day, by those who claim exemption on the ground of physical disability.
The enforcement of the conscription act has converted one half of the able bodied men of the place into invalids–Gout, Rheumatism and other diseases of a most complicated character, sufficient to baffle the combined skill of all the medical faculties that ever existed, have lately made their appearance and quite annihilated the patriotism, energy and zeal, which their victims possessed and displayed prior to the extension of the act to the age of forty-five.