431. Organization.-The Adjutant-General's Department shall consist of one Adjutant-General with the rank of major-general, and when a vacancy shall occur in the office of Adjutant-General on the expiration of the service of the present incumbent, by retirement or otherwise, the Adjutant-General shall thereafter have the rank and pay of a brigadier-general, five assistant adjutants-general with the rank of colonel, seven assistant adjutants-general with the rank of lieutenant colonel, and fifteen assistant adjutants-general with the rank of major: Provided, That all vacancies created or caused by this

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section shall, as far as possible, be filled by promotion according to seniority of officers of the Adjutant-General's Department. Sec. 13, Act of Feb. 2, 1901 (31 Stat., 751).

(For the law regarding promotions in, and details to, the Adjutant-General's Department see chapter entitled Staff Departments. It has been necessary to include in this chapter certain laws which have been superseded in order to make clear the devolution of the present Adjutant-General's Department. See par. 434.)

432. The Record and Pension Office.-The division organized by the Secretary of War in his office for the preservation and custody of the records of the volunteer armies under the name of the Record and Pension Division is hereby established as now organized, and shall hereafter be known as the Record and Pension Office of the War Department. Act of May 9, 1892 (27 Stat. 27).

433. Same-Composition of.-The officers of the Record and Pension Office of the War Department shall be a chief of said office with the rank of a brigadier-general and an assistant chief of said office with the rank of major: Provided, That any person appointed to be Chief of the Record and Pension Office after the passage of this act shall have the rank of colonel. Sec. 25, Act of Feb. 2, 1901 (31 Stat. 754).

(See remarks following par. 431.)

434. Military Secretary's Department, Adjutant-General's Department and Record and Pension Office consolidated.-The officers of the Adjutant-General's Department, except the Adjutant-General, and the officers of the Record and Pension Office shall hereafter constitute one department of the Army, to be known as the Military Secretary's Department; and the Adjutant-General's Office and the Record and Pension Office, heretofore constituting bureaus of the War Department, shall hereafter constitute a consolidated bureau to be known as the Military Secretary's Office of the War Department. The officers so consolidated shall be borne on one list in the order of rank held by them, and those of them who hold permanent appointments as officers of the Adjutant-General's Department or of the Record and Pension Office shall be entitled to promotion below the grade of brigadier-general, as now provided by law and in the order of their standing on said list. Except as otherwise provided herein, the laws now in force shall continue to govern the appointment, promotion, and detail of all officers of the consolidated department hereby created: Provided, That the officers of the said consolidated department shall be subject to the supervision of the Chief of Staff in all matters pertaining to the command, discipline, or administration of the existing military establishment: Provided further, That no appointments or details to the grade of assistant adjutant-general with the rank of major shall be made until the number of officers of

that grade shall be reduced to less than ten, and thereafter the number of officers of said grade in the consolidated department shall be ten: Provided further, That of the officers consolidated as hereinbefore provided the senior in rank, who shall be chief of the consolidated department and the title of whose office is hereby changed to that of the military secretary, shall hereafter have the rank of majorgeneral, and the second senior of said officers shall hereafter have the rank of brigadier-general: Provided further, That when the office of Military Secretary with the rank of major-general shall hereafter become vacant, it shall not be filled with said rank, and thereafter the chief of the Military Secretary's Department shall have the rank of a brigadier-general with the title of The Military Secretary, and there shall be only one officer above the rank of colonel in the said department. Except as hereinafter provided, the remaining offices of the consolidated department shall retain the titles that they now bear: Provided further, That when the office of Adjutant-General shall become vacant the vacancy so created on the active list of the Army shall not be filled, and thereafter the several officers now designated by the title assistant adjutant-general and by the title assistant chief of the Record and Pension Office shall be designated by the title Military Secretary. Act of Apr. 23, 1904 (33 Stat. 262).

(See par. 436. See also remarks following par. 431.)

435. Same-Appropriations, etc., to be available for both.-Whenever the office of the Adjutant-General and the Record and Pension Office shall be consolidated by operation of law, any appropriation available at the time of such consolidation, or that may thereafter become available, for the support of either of those offices shall be equally available for the support of the bureau formed by the consolidation, and all employees provided by law for either of said offices, except such employees as were transferred by the Secretary of War to the Military Information Division of the General Staff prior to April first, nineteen hundred and four, shall be regarded as employees of the consolidated bureau and shall be exclusively engaged upon the work of that bureau as required in the case of the employees of the Record and Pension Office by the Acts making appropriations for the legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the Government for the fiscal years nineteen hundred and four and nineteen hundred and five. Act of Apr. 27, 1904 (33 Stat. 401). 436. Military Secretary's Department to be known as the AdjutantGeneral's Department, etc.-Hereafter the Military Secretary's Department of the Army shall be known as the Adjutant-General's Department, the senior in rank of the officers of said department shall be designated by the title of The Adjutant-General, the other officers of the Department shall be designated by the title of Adjutant-General, and The Military Secretary's Office of the War De

partment shall be known as the Adjutant-General's Office. Art of Mar. 2, 1907 (34 Stat. 1158).

(The office of major-general provided for in par. 434, as well as the office of brigadier-general for the second senior in the Military Secretary's Department provided for in the same paragraph, have been vacated. There is but one general officer now in the Adjutant-General's Department and he occupies the office of Adjutant-General.)

437. Duties of assistant adjutants-general.—Assistant adjutantsgeneral shall, in addition to their own duties, perform those of assistant inspectors-general, when the convenience of the service requires them to do so.1 Sec. 1130, R. S.

(For the law regarding the recruiting service which is under the management of The Adjutant-General, see chapter Enlisted men.)

438. Duties of Record and Pension Office.-The Record and Pension Office of the War Department shall, under the Secretary of War, have charge of the military and hospital records of the volunteer armies and the pension and other business of the War Department connected therewith; and all laws or parts of laws inconsistent

1 The Adjutant-General's Department is the department of records, orders and correspondence of the Army and the militia.

The Adjutant-General is charged, under the direction of the Secretary of War, and subject to the supervision of the Chief of Staff in all matters pertaining to the command, discipline, or administration of the existing military establishment, with the duty of recording, authenticating, and communicating to troops and individuals in the military service all orders, instructions, and regulations issued by the Secretary of War through the Chief of Staff; of preparing and distributing commissions; of compiling and issuing the Army Regis ter and the Army List and Directory; of consolidating the general returns of the Army; of arranging and preserving the reports of officers detailed to visit encampments of militia; of preparing the annual returns of the militia required by law to be submitted to Congress; of managing the recruiting service, and of recording and issuing orders from the War Department remitting or mitigating sentences of general prisoners who have been discharged from the military service.

The Adjutant-General is vested by law with the charge, under the Secretary of War, "of the military and hospital records of the volunteer armies and the pension and other business of the War Department connected therewith"; and of the publication and distribution of the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion. He also has charge of the historical records and business of the permanent military establishment, including all pension, pay, bounty, and other business pertaining to or based upon the military or medical histories of former officers or enlisted men.

The archives of The Adjutant-General's Office include: All military records of the Revolutionary War; the records of all organizations, officers, and enlisted men that have been in the military service of the United States since the Revolutionary War; the records of the movements and operations of troops; the medical and hospital records of the Army; all reports of physical examination of recruits and all identification cards; the records of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau; the records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands; the Confederate records, including those pertaining to the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the Confederate government.

Upon the muster out or discharge of volunteers or militia from the service of the United States all the records that pertain to them, and that have not already been filed in The Adjutant-General's office, will be transferred to and filed in that office.

The Adjutant-General takes such steps as are necessary to complete or correct the records in his custody, and answers all calls or inquiries that are answerable from those records and that do not require administrative action by other bureaus of the War Department. (A. R. 1913, Par. 774.)