his proper superior officer to N. S. Walker, April 13, 1864

Maj. N. S. WALKER, Agent, Saint George’s, Bermuda:

Sir: There is a lot of machinery at Bermuda belonging to this department and intended for the manufacture of ambulances, &c., which, with the material accompanying it, it is of great importance to receive. A portion, too, of the cargo of the Princesse Royale, the shoes and cloths, are greatly needed. The pressure for blankets has ceased for the present. If arrangements cannot be made to ship the articles wanted at a very early day direct to Wilmington from Bermuda, I have to request that you will immediately forward the same to Nassau, from which point there is no difficulty in securing freight room. You can do the same with regard to any other supplies belonging to this department that may hereafter reach Bermuda, where they are likely to meet with unreasonable detention. I understand that there are fair facilities for reshipping to Nassau, and I presume the charges are moderate between that point and Bermuda.

Your duplicate accounts (vouchers withheld) forwarded by the City of Petersburg have been received. They show that over £5,600 has been drawn for by you against the funds of this department. Please write at an early day and explain the nature of some of the disbursements. But one lot of supplies, some 1,500 pair shoes, have been received through you from Bermuda. The draft in favor of Williamson was given at a time when this department had no funds abroad, and it was not intended that the Ordnance Bureau should be reimbursed in sterling. The Secretary of War, in fact, had directed the amount to be paid here. These items, with the freight charges on 65 B. C., are the only ones about which this department knows anything. The pay of signal officers at Bermuda is hardly chargeable to this department, especially as at that point next to nothing in the way of quartermaster’s stores has been received. These explanations are, of course, only desired with a view to adjusting these expenditures as between the bureaus chargeable.

P. 8.—Reshipments to Nassau will not, of course, be desirable at any time when the vessels engaged in the trade may be diverted to Bermuda, by reason of the establishment of quarantine as to such as come from Nassau.

Richmond, April 13, 1864. CoLiIn J. McRag,

Financial Agent Confederate States, Paris :

Sir: Yours of 25th December advising me that you had advanced £50,000 to Major Ferguson has been received. Iam gratified to see from the contents of this letter, as also from one addressed to the Secretary of War, that you are fairly impressed with the importance of responding liberally to the wants of this branch of the service. Until recently it has drawn nothing from abroad, and its losses by capture have been so heavy during this winter that it still requires, I can assure you, all the aid that can be extended.

The demand for shoes will soon be greater than ever, when our armies resume active operations, and the limited quantity of wool in this region of country compels me to look abroad for material for clothing. The only relief that spring brings is in the item of blankets, and even these will have to be accumulated during the summer and fall for next winter’s use. I regret, therefore, that Major Ferguson was disappointed in the receipt of £25,000, for which a draft was remitted, but at the same time I feel confident that you will continue

to aid him, as you have done in the past, to the full extent of your power.

To meet the indebtedness of Major Waller at Nassau I was compelled, with the sanction of the Secretary of War, to appeal to you for assistance. The Commissary, Ordnance, and Mining and Niter Bureaus have now, and have had for some months past, 1,500 tons of freight awaiting shipment at Bermuda, so they would appear to need shipping facilities rather than funds to purchase supplies. The supplies of this department have been drawn through Nassau, where no delay has been encountered. There is nothing there awaiting shipment, but, on the contrary, an indebtedness of nearly £10,000 for stores long since forwarded.

A. R. LAWTON, Quartermaster-General.

GENERAL tea ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, No. 42. Richmond, April 14, 1864.

I. At the end of each month monthly inspection reports, in accordance with forms last furnished, will be forwarded to this office from the headquarters of the different Confederate States armies. These reports to embrace all troops, of all arms, serving with each army. The cover of all documents relating to inspection duties will be marked on the upper left-hand corner, ”Inspecting Department.”

I. I. To secure more full and complete information to this department, army inspectors will forward, with their own reports, those of corps, division, and brigade inspectors, indorsing the latter with such remarks as will indicate changes which have occurred since previous reports, or give amore clear and full idea of the condition of the Army and the relative efficiency of its different organizations and their commanders.

III. Thorough inspections, under arms, of all troops of the armies will be made by the inspectors of the different commands with which they are respectively serving, as follows: Tri-monthly of brigades, semi-monthly of divisions, and monthly of corps. Inspectors at army headquarters will inspect monthly so much of the army as their other duties will permit, stating in their reports the extent of such personal inspections. To avoid harassing the troops by too frequent inspections, the ranking inspectors will inspect, when practicable, at the same time with the subordinate inspectors and at the stated periods of their inspections. At all inspections the ranking inspector will be accompanied and assisted by his subordinates of the commands inspected—for example, the corps inspector by the inspectors of the division and of the brigade to be inspected.

I. V. The requisite inspection blanks will be furnished from this office upon timely requisitions, the receipt of which will be acknowledged by army inspectors, who will look to their proper distribution.

V. The commander of each army will have a report of all inspectors serving with it forwarded to this office, giving their names in full, their rank, and the command with which they are serving.

V. I. The following is substituted for paragraph V, General Orders, No. 35, current series, which is hereby revoked: Officers of the Conscription Bureau will send to the general commanding the army or department in which the commands captured last served such officers and men belonging to them as have themselves escaped capture. The general commanding will assign them temporarily to depleted organizations, or such other duty as he may direct.

VII. Paragraph II, General Orders, No. 86, 1863, is modified to this extent: The minimum number prescribed by law for a company of infantry is sixty-four privates; for a company of cavalry, sixty privates.

VIII. Soldiers over the age of forty-five years will be discharged from service in the Army at the expiration of their present term of enlistment. Those under eighteen years will also be discharged in like manner when the enlistment expires, unless they are at that time liable to conscription.

I. X. Paragraph IV, General Orders, No. 34, and paragraph I, General Orders, No. 37, 1864, are thus modified: Medical examining boards will forward the original applications of officers (who desire to be retired under the act to provide an invalid corps) and their certificates to the general commanding the army or department to which the officers belong. The general commanding will forward them, with an indorsement of his opinion in each case, through the Surgeon-General to the Adjutant and Inspector General. Certificates of retirement of officers will be issued only from this office.

X. All authorities heretofore given to raise troops, or to recruit for any particular command, are hereby revoked.

X. I. The ordnance depot at Savannah (heretofore regarded as a field depot, and under the command of the district commander), having assumed the proportions of an arsenal, will hereafter be designated as the ”Savannah Arsenal,” and, like other arsenals, will be subject to the supervision of the Chief of Ordnance, Richmond, to whom its commanding officer will report directly.

XII. Officers to whom soldiers on detached or detailed duty report will take possession of their descriptive lists, and, in accordance with instructions thereon given, will prepare and certify to the musterrolls, upon which they receive the pay due them. Payments will be made such soldiers, when in the field, at the end of every two months; when at posts, at the end of each month. Upon these rolls annual settlements of clothing accounts may be made with soldiers on detailed duty at posts.

XIII. To prevent their detention on their way home, soldiers leaving the Army on furlough of indulgence will, instead of being furnished with descriptive lists, be paid at their commands to the close of the month preceding the dates of their furloughs, upon detached rolls, signed by their company commanders.

XIV. Sick or wounded men sent to hospitals will be paid as heretofore, upon hospital muster and pay rolls. Those who, on account of wounds or ill-health, are permitted to go to their homes may be paid upon descriptive lists by the nearest quartermaster or assistant quartermaster.

X. V. When soldiers are ordered to rejoin their commands, officers with whom they have been on duty, surgeons in charge of hospitals of which they have been inmates, and quartermasters and assistant quartermasters paying those sick and wounded at home will (after carefully noting upon their descriptive lists payments made to them) return such soldiers their descriptive lists, to be delivered to their company commander, and will also transmit, through the general commanding the army to which they belong, duplicates of the same to the latter.

XVI. The following acts of Congress are published for the information of the Army:

AN ACT to provide compensation for officers who may heretofore have performed staff duty under orders of their superior ofticers.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That when any officer or private of any legally constituted military organization may have here- tofore,

by order of his proper superior officer, performed any staff duty appropriate to such command, he shall be entitled to receive pay for the time he was so