REPORT OF Ꮮ Ꭺ Ꮓ . NOBLE, ADJUTANT GENERAL OF INDIANA, EMBRACING A PERIOD FROM JANUARY 1, 1863, TO NOVEMBER 12, 1864. TO THE GOVERNOR. INDIANAPOLIS: W. R. HOLLOWAY, STATE PRINTER. 1865. Part II.-D. J.-37 NOTE. The official Roster of the Regiments intended to be appended hereto, showing the officers commissioned in the several Regiments, will be embraced in the Report of my successor, Adjutant General W. H. H. TERRELL, Soon to be published. LAZ. NOBLE. REPORT. ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, To His Excellency, OLIVER P. MORTON, Governor of Indiana. } SIR: After a lapse of two years, I have the honor to submit for your consideration my Report of the operations of the Adjutant General's Department since the close of my last report. The causeless and bloody rebellion begun in April, 1861, in the Southern States, against the Government of the United States, has now progressed for nearly four years, and our State has continued to furnish and send to the field new levies to augment the Federal forces. and fill the places of those who have bravely fallen in defence of the cause to which they had pledged their sacred lives. Recruiting has always been stimulated and fostered throughout the State to fill up the veteran organizations and to raise men for the new ones, until our State, it will be but just to say will compare most favorably with her sister States in the promptnees and alacrity with which she has always furnished her quotas of men. At the beginning of the year 1863, the number of volunteers furnished by the State largely exceeded her quotas under all calls, and as succeeding calls were made the system of recruiting in operation enabled the authorities to fill them without resorting to a draft, until quite recently. A draft was very objectionable to the people, who greatly preferred to raise their quotas by combining and obtaining volunteers, and now if some feasible and equitable system för bounties can be devised and continued, a sufficient number of volunteer recruits can, as I conceive, be at all times procured to fill the ranks of our Regiments. ADDITIONAL NEW ORGANIZATIONS. In June, 1862, the President issued his call on certain States for a large force of six months volunteers, and your Excellency proposed to raise one Regiment in each Congressional District of the State, in the shortest possible period of time. When the call was issued a harvest was near at hand, and a great deficiency of labor was likely to be experienced in the agricultural districts, causing delay and an abatement in inlistments, so that only four Regiments were organized in the State, which were the following: 115th Regiment, under Col. John R. Mahan. These Regiments, on their organization aud equipment, were marched through Kentucky to Cumberland Gap, and thence into East Tennessee, where they assisted in reclaiming that unfortunate region from rebel authority, undergoing most arduous service and experiencing greater privations during the winter months than any new forces from the State ever experienced in so brief a period of time. Their six months service will long be remembered by both officers and men. 7TH CAVALRY-119TH REGIMENT. Under special authority from the War Department a new Regiment of Cavalry, to be designated the 7th Cavalry, 119th Regiment Indiana Volunteers, was ordered to be raised under the supervision of Col. John P. C. Shanks, of the Eleventh Congressional District, in pursuance of General Orders issued as follows: GENERAL ORDERS. STATE OF INDIANA, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, } Indianapolis, June 24th, 1863. SEVENTH REGIMENT INDIANA CAVALRY. By virtue of authority from the Secretary of War another Regiment of Cavalry will be raised in this State immediately, to serve for three years or during the war. The regiment will be recruited in accordance with the rules and instructions in General Orders No. 75 of the War Department, series of 1862. The privilege will be accorded to each Congressional District to furnish one company for the regiment, if organized and reported within thirty days. If companies are not likely to be raised in any of the Districts within that time, companies from any part of the State will be accepted. The regiment will consist of twelve companies, and be officered as follows: One Colonel, one Lieutenant Colonel, three Majors, one Surgeon, two Assistant Surgeons, one Adjutant, one Quartermaster, one Commissary, (extra Lieutenants,) one Chaplain, one Veterinary Surgeon, one Sergeant Major, one Quartermaster Sergeant, one Commissary Sergeant, two Hospital Stewards, one Saddler Sergeant, and one Chief Trumpeter. Each Company will be organized with one Captain, one First Lieutenant, one Second Lieutenant, one First Sergeant, one Quartermaster Sergeant, one Company Sergeant, five Sergeants, eight Corporals, two Trumpeters, two Farriers, a Blacksmith, one Saddler, one Wagoner, and seventy-eight Privates. Aggregate, 103. Any Company of fifty-two men will be accepted and mustered, with a First Lieutenant, and if they fail to fill up within a reasonable time, they will be consolidated with other parts of companies. The right is reserved to combine incomplete companies or parts of companies, after a fair opportunity has been afforded them to fill up. In combining parts of companies the following distribution of the officers is suggested, and parts of companies will be accepted with a view to make such combinations: For 45 men, a Captaincy; For 35 men, a First Lieutenancy; For 25 men, a Second Lieutenancy. Col. J. P. C. Shanks has been appointed Commandant of the Camp of rendezvous for said regiment, and will be obeyed and respected accordingly. Applications for authority to recruit companies may be filed at these Headquarters or with the Commandant. Camp Morton will be the rendezvous of said Regiment. Recruiting officers and others raising companies may contract for the subsistence and lodging of recruits at places away from the camp of rendezvous, for a period not exceeding one week, at not exceeding thirty cents per day, and the accounts thereof properly verified by the recruiting officer, and approved by the Governor, or Adjutant General, will be paid by the U. S. Disbursing Officer, provided the recruits so subsisted are received into the United States service. When companies have been accepted they will be furnished with transportation passes to enable them to reach the rendezvous. 25 DOLLARS OF BOUNTY IN ADVANCE. Every volunteer shall receive in advance twenty-five dollars of the one hundred dollars bounty, to be paid him immediately upon the muster of such regiment into the service. By order of his Excellency, LAZ. NOBLE, Adj't Gen'l Ind. O. P. MORTON, Governor. The recruitment of the Regiment was somewhat tardy, but it was finally completed, and on its organization and equipment started by railroad on the 1863, under orders to report at Memphis, Tennessee. day of In the progress of events further requisitions were made on the State for her quotas of forces for the Federal army, and it became |