From the Richmond Dispatch, 12/22/1862, p. 1, c. 5

City Council. – A called meeting of this body was hold yesterday at 12 o'clock at the City Hall. Present: Messrs. D. J. Saunders, Fleming Griffin, Thos. C. Epps, Peachy R. Grattan, L. W. Glazebrook, Thomas H. Wynne, James A. Scott, N. B. Hill, R. O Haskins, and George K Crutchfield.

The President stated the object of the meeting was to concert some plan of action by which the city would be enabled to retain the services of certain men now employed by her and necessary to the administration of government in the corporation limits. After a discussion of the plan to be pursued, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted:

Whereas, by an act of the last Congress all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years are subject to military duty except such as are by that act exempted, and as said act exempts no city officers, and it is of the utmost importance to the interest of the city that certain officers, firemen, &c., should be retained in her service: Therefore,

Resolved. That a committee of three members of the Council be appointed to make application to the proper authorities of the Confederate Government for exemption from military duty such of the Fire Brigade, Police Department, hands at the Gas and Water Works, the assistants in the Collector's office, the clerks in the Auditor's and Chamberlain's offices, the Messenger of the Council, the City Engineer and his assistant, the Keeper of the Powder Magazine and his assistant, as are subject to military duty under said act or such as said committee may deem important to the interest of the city.

A record of the Hustings Court, certifying to the Council that the jail of this city is insufficient in space for the confinement of prisoners who may be placed therein and is not well secured as required by law and the public interest, was read and referred to the Committee on the Jail.

A report was received from Dr. Snead. Health Officer, in which he states that but six soldiers remained in the City Hospital, in which there are one hundred patients, all save four white males and one white female being negroes. The building being much crowded, he suggests the renting of another, and the appointment of a superintendent of the hospital, whose whole time can be given to the business of attending on the sick.

A communication was read from Dr. George C. Rawlings, declining the acceptance of the appointment as a member of the Board of Health, conferred on him at the last meeting of the Council.

The application of Stephen D. Letellier, L. M. Wingfield, Charles A. Shuman, Peter Lawson, Jr., Frederick Maisch, and Wm. Irvin, to be licensed as butchers in the Second Market, was heard and granted.

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