GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, August 26, 1864

No. 68. Richmond, Va., August 26, 1864.

I. The act of Congress ‘‘to provide for the establishment and payment of claims for a Gertain description of property taken or informally impressed,” approved June 14, 1864, and published in General Orders, No. 54, current series, does not prescribe any rule of decision to the accounting officers of the Government, but was designed to secure for the claimant an early method of obtaining proof for his claim. The Department, therefore, recommends to the commissioners appointed under the aforesaid act to receive the proof of the claims that may be made for the property designated in the act and embraced in its objects, with which any claimant may be prepared, although the same may not be, in their opinion, sufficient to support a claim against the Confederate States, nor conform to the directions in General Orders, No. 54. But all claims that are not supported by testimony as prescribed in the general orders just cited should be reported separately from the others and as being taken under this order.

II. Requisitions may be made by any commissioner appointed under said act upon a quartermaster of a post in his district for a reasonable supply of stationery to enable him to perform his duties, and also for the payment of six advertisements in two newspapers, to be published in the district, of the time and places at which he may hold his sessions. No allowances will be made for clerk hire or counsel fees.

III. The allowances to the commissioners will be paid at the Treasury, after being audited by the Second Auditor, from the fund for ‘‘eontingent expenses of the Army,” and claims for services under the act by a commissioner will be sent to the Second Auditor properly authenticated for allowances.

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.