movements of the enemy, or other facts relating to the general interest of the service coming within their knowledge. 3. Communications transmitted by signals are always confidential; they will not be revealed by officers on stations to others than those officially entitled to receive them. 4. The senior officer of any command will be the chief of the signal parties serving in that command. Orders or instructions affecting their duties will be transmitted through him, and he will be held responsible that the officers and men under his charge are fully instructed and properly perform the duties assigned them. He will have charge of all signal duty, and will keep himself well informed of the position of the army and of the enemy, and will, under the instruction of the General Commanding, so establish his stations that they may be most advantageously posted. He will take care, by inspections and timely requisitions, that his party is well supplied with all equipments necessary to render it effective. He will make, from time to time, the proper reports of his operations in the field to the General Commanding, and will, with the assent of the General, forward certified copies of these reports to the office of the Signal Officer. He will make the usual returns and semi-monthly statements, and at the end of each month a report to the Signal Officer of the army as to the condition of his party and of such matters as pertain to its particular duties. 5. The examining boards prescribed above may be appointed by the Commander of any army, army corps, or department in which signal parties have been or may be authorized. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: Members and Judge Advocates of Military Commissions will be entitled to the same extra pay and travelling allowances as in the case of General Courts-Martial. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General. GENERAL ORDERS, No. 143. WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, I..A Bureau is established in the Adjutant General's Office for the record of all matters relating to the organization of colored troops. An officer will be assigned to the charge of the Bureau, with such number of clerks as may be designated by the Adjutant General. II..Three or more field officers will be detailed as Inspectors to supervise the organization of colored troops at such points as may be indicated by the War Department in the northern and western States. III..Boards will be convened at such posts as may be decided upon by the War Department to examine applicants for commissions to command colored troops, who, on application to the Adjutant General, may receive authority to present themselves to the board for examination. IV..No person shall be allowed to recruit for colored troops except specially authorized by the War Department; and no such authority will be given to persons who have not been examined and passed by a board; nor will such authority be given any one person to raise more than one regiment. V..The reports of boards will specify the grade of commission for which each candidate is fit, and authority to recruit will be given in accordance. Commissions will be issued from the Adjutant General's Office when the prescribed number of men is ready for muster into service. VI..Colored troops may be accepted by companies, to be afterwards consolidated in battalions and regiments by the Adjutant General The regiments will be numbered seriatim, in the order in which they are raised, the numbers to be determined by the Adjutant General. They will be designated: " Regiment of U. S. Colored Troops." VII..Recruiting stations and depots will be established by the Adjutant General as circumstances shall require, and officers will be detailed to muster and inspect the troops. VIII..The non-commissioned officers of colored troops may be selected and appointed from the best men of their number in the usual mode of appointing non-commissioned officers. Meritorious com missioned officers will be entitled to promotion to higher rank if they prove themselves equal to it. IX..All personal applications for appointments in colored regiments, or for information concerning them, must be made to the Chief of the Bureau; all written communications should be addressed to the Chief of the Bureau, to the care of the Adjutant General. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: The following Rules are prescribed for the guidance of Boards in examining applicants for commissions in Regiments of colored troops: 1. The Board will sit every day, except Sunday, from 9 o'clock a. m. to 5 o'clock p. m. The place of sitting to be provided by the Quartermaster's Department, and public notice given. 2. The Board will make to the Adjutant General, for record in the Bureau for Colored Troops, reports of all persons examined, whether approved or rejected; the reports will be made weekly, or oftener when specially called for. 3. Each applicant must exhibit to the Board authority from the Adjutant General to appear before it. Such authority will be given upon satisfactory recommendations of good moral character and standing in the community in which the applicant resides; or, if in the military service, on testimonials from his commanding officers. All such recommendations will be filed in the Bureau for Colored Troops. 4. Each applicant shall be subjected to a fair but rigorous examination as to physical, mental, and moral fitness to command troops. 5. The Board shall specify for what grade of commission the several applicants are fit; and shall also classify and number them according to merit or proficiency. 6. Appointments to each grade shall only be made from the candidates approved by the Board, and in the order of merit recommended by it. 7. The report of the Board, if adverse, shall be conclusive; and no person rejected by it shall be re-examined. 8. Other instructions will be communicated to Boards, if required. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: Under the 5th section of the act approved May 16, 1812, Captain R. N. Scott, 4th U. S. Infantry, is appointed Secretary to the Generalin-chief of the army. He will be respected accordingly. BY COMMAND OF MAJOR GENERAL HALLECK: The following uniform has been adopted for officers of the Invalid Corps: Frock Coat-Of sky-blue cloth, with dark-blue velvet collar and cuffs-in all other respects, according to the present pattern for officers of Infantry. Shoulder Straps-According to present regulations, but worked on dark-blue velvet. Pantaloons-Of sky-blue cloth, with double stripe of dark-blue cloth down the outer seam, each stripe one-half inch wide, with space between of three-eighths of an inch. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General. GENERAL ORDERS. No. 161. WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Paragraph 1385 Army Regulations is so amended as to authorize issues, without payment, of equipments and arms necessary to the performance of such duty to officers detailed for special duty requiring them to be mounted; and for which service they receive no additiona! compensation. Officers shall receipt for and account for all equipments or arms so issued to them. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: I..The following revised order, in relation to Ivance pay, bounties, and premiums, as paid by the United States, is published for the information of all concerned, and will govern in lieu of all other orders on the subject: A RESOLUTION to encourage Enlistments in the Regular Army and Volunteer forces. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That so much of the ninth section of the act approved August third, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, entitled "An act for the better organization of the military establishment,” as abolishes the premium paid for bringing accepted recruits to the rendezvous, be and the same is hereby repealed, and hereafter a premium of two dollars shall be paid to any citizen, non-commissioned officer, or soldier, for such accepted recruit for the regular army [as] he may bring to the rendezvous. And every soldier who hereafter enlists, either in the regular army or the volunteers, for three years, or during the war, may receive his first month's pay in advance, upon the mustering of his company into the service of the United States, or after he shall have been mustered into and joined a regiment already in the service. Approved June 21, 1862. |