John S. Preston to T. Goldthwaite, March 19, 1864

No. 35. Richmond, March 19, 1864.

I. Officers on inspection duty, while traveling under the immediate orders of the War Department, will be allowed their personal expenses (less the commutation value of one ration per day) in lieu of all allowances for fuel, quarters, and forage. Each account must be certified by the officer receiving the payment, and will be paid by any quartermaster.

I. I. Paragraph 166, General Regulations, is not construed to allow certain commanding officers to grant themselves leave. They will not absent themselves from their commands without authority from this office.

will the commander of a post grant leave to an officer without permission first obtained from the general commanding the army or department in which the post may be established.

I. V. Commanding generals and other commanding officers are prohibited from detaching officers and ordering them to duty or for assignment in other commands, or beyond the limits of their departments or commands, without previous authority from this office. The transportation allowance of an officer so detached and ordered without previous authority will be charged to the officer giving the order.

V. Until exchanged and reassembled, the officers and men of captured organizations will be temporarily assigned, by the general commanding the department in which the troops have been serving, to depleted organizations in the service, or to such other duty as the commanding general may direct. To this end it will be the duty of the officers of the Conscription Bureau in the several States to return to the general commanding the department in which the troops have last served such officers and soldiers as are now or may be hereafter absent from duty on account of the capture of their command.

V. I. Paragraph VI, General Orders, No. 13, current series, is thus amended:

In making payments to soldiers upon descriptive lists officers of the Quartermaster’s Department will be careful to indorse thereon the amounts paid and the time for which they have been paid, returning the same to them for delivery to their company commanders. Disbursing officers will file with receipts given by soldiers thus paid a certificate in each case that the descriptive list was according to preseribed form, dated, and subscribed by the officer commanding the company; that the station of the company was given and that no money was paid the soldier except that certified by the officer as due from the records of the company.

VII. Under General Orders, No. 142, 1863, the inspector-general of field transportation is charged with impressing and purchasing field transportation forthe Army. His officers and agents will not be inter. fered with by either officers or soldiers when engaged in discharging that duty.

VIII. Persons liable to conscription who have joined companies in the local or special service will be turned over to enrolling officers for assignment to companies in the general service.

I. X. The following is published as supplementary to the schedule of average cost of arms, parts of arms, and accouterments, as set forth in General Orders, No. 158, Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, December 3, 1863:

Carbine (breech-loading) – -_.— S25200} eb orsey brush! =. 3. eee eee $2.00 Carbine (muzzle-loading) —— 60.00) Bridle 2.2.2 2_-4…-.22. eee 14.00 Parts of same. (See prices of Bith Sees ee eee oe 2.00

parts of rifle, model 1855.) Garth Ss 4 Soe ak Se 5.00 Skeleton saddles —-..——— 75200) SUrTupSs mass 22 ee eres e – 2.00 alter ats 9 2 < cet. on bie tae T2200) lp TiGlO 1 O18 eos ees see eee 7.00 CRUD POR ae canes ae ee S00 LSDUIS sence eee eee eee 1.50 Slirnip) leabhersasas see see eee 6x008/" Carry !combssees see nes ae eee 1.25 Mess: blaniketss222- 22nc02soeees = r4t00" Nose: bag' 2 Seek Se eee 2.50 Halter reine 2s: 4

The price of bayonets is increased to $11 each.

Adjutant and Inspector General.

SARS Late BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, No. 9. Richmond, March 19, 1864.

I. This Bureau being charged by General Orders, No. 32, Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, current series, with the enrollment and assignment of all the persons described in the first section act of Congress therein published and entitled ” An act to increase the efficiency of the Army by the employment of free negroes and slaves in certain capacities,” the said first section and paragraphs II and III of the said orders are herewith made parts of this circular. *

I. J. Commandants of conscripts will forthwith proceed in accordance with the foregoing second paragraph of said orders to the enrollment of the persons described in the said first section of the act aforesaid, have them examined by the Board of Examination, and furnish the Bureau descriptive lists of such as are fit for the service required. Ten days’ furlough may be allowed after acceptance, at the expiration of which time the persons who are found fit for the service required will be forwarded to the headquarters of the general

commanding the department embracing the States in which they are enrolled. Receipts will be taken upon their delivery.

III. Applications for exemptions in this class of persons may be finally disposed of by the commandant of conscripts without reference to this Bureau. He should require them to be forwarded to him in accordance with the instructions of Circular No. 8, current series.

By command of Col. John S. Preston, superintendent: