tions in fitting out their command for movements which are to be made rapidly and without ordinary transportation. This order will be published at the head of every Regiment. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: By an act of the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, approved September 11, 1862, the right to vote for certain State officers is given to Volunteers or soldiers from that State in the military service of the United States, and provision is made for the appointment of one commissioner to each regiment of Iowa Volunteers for the purpose of carrying out this act. It is hereby ordered that all such duly accredited commissioners from Iowa be furnished with proper facilities for visiting the Volunteers from that State, and allowed access to them for the purpose indicated. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General. GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, No. 276. Adjutant General's Office, To secure and preserve discipline, provide against disaster from the elements or attack by the enemy, the Senior Officer in the military service of the United States present with troops upon any transport will assume command, unless he finds, on going on board, a commander already designated by proper authority. All troops on board the transport will, at the earliest moment after embarking, be inspected and organized into detachments or companies. The Senior Officer will assign officers to each detachment or company, and take all measures necessary to put his command into the best state of cfficiency to meet any emergency. This order applies to all troops on board of transports, whether on duty or furlough, or in separate detachments; and the Senior Officer on board will be held responsible for any failure in the performance of the duties above imposed upon him, and for the enforcement in his command of strict observance of the Article 37, Revised Army Regulations, for the government of troops on transports. He will require, when arriving in sight of port, a report of the. voyage from the Senior Officer or acting officer of each staff department on board, and will transmit it, with his own report, through the proper channel, to the Adjutant General of the Army. These reports should give any facts of interest touching the accommodation and health of the troops, the manner in which the officers and crew of the transport have performed their duties, and the length of the voyage; and any observations which may enable the War Department to detect and correct abuses and punish neglect. This Order will be placed in a conspicuous position in every chartered or purchased transport. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: I..No officers are entitled to cavalry pay, emoluments, and allowances, under the 1st section of the act of July 17, 1862, unless they be assigned by the War Department specially, under that act, "to duty which requires them to be mounted." II..Officers falling in temporary command of bodies of troops, to command which they should be mounted, or employed temporarily on staff or special duty which, for the occasion, requires them to be furnished with horses, will, upon the certificate to that effect, and order, of a General Officer commanding a corps or department, or of the highest independent commander on the spot, not being less than a brigade commander, be provided with the requisite horses and horse equipments for the service required of them by the Quartermaster's Department. These will be receipted and accounted for by the officer receiving them, and will be turned in again to the Quartermaster's Department when the mounted service for which they were drawn shall have terminated. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General. GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, August 8, 1863. No. 278. Paragraph 1106, Regulations for the Army, is modified so as to allow the General Commanding an Army, or the Commander of a Military Department, to authorize the officers of the Quartermaster's Department under his control to furnish transportation, in light or spring-wagons, for Paymasters, their clerks and funds, over routes where railways, steamboats, and stage lines are not available, when such Paymasters are ordered on such journeys for the payment of troops, and are not serving immediately with forces operating in the field. Such means of transportation will be in full for the Paymaster, his clerks, personal baggage, public funds, and official books and papers. No more than one light or spring-wagon will be furnished to any one Paymaster for the above purposes for any one journey; but the Commander authorizing this transportation may direct that more than one Paymaster be transported in the same manner. The means of transportation thus provided will remain in charge of the Quartermaster's Department, and will be turned over to that department when the special journey for which it was furnished has been performed. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General. NOTE.-See General Orders No. 161, in relation to Ordnance equipments and arms. GENERAL ORDERS, No. 280. WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, The following regulation, promulgated in paragraph II, General Orders No. 208, from the War Department, is rescinded: "II..Hereafter no officer or agent under the control of the War Department disbursing public money will pay any claim or account presented through agents or collectors, except on regular power of attorney, executed after the account or claim is due and payable, and unless such agent or collector is considered by the disbursing officer amply able to reimburse the United States, or the disbursing officer, in case such claim or account shall, subsequent to payment, prove to be unjust or fraudulent; and when an account is presented in person by an individual who is not known to the disbursing officer, the latter will require such evidence of identity as will secure the Government against fraud.” BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General. GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, August 17, 1863. No. 286. Irregularities having occurred in the discharge of prisoners of war, through the exercise of discretionary power by some of the department and other commanders, it has become necessary to order: 1. No prisoner of war, after having been reported to the Commissary General of Prisoners, will be discharged except upon an order from the Commissioner for the Exchange of Prisoners, who will act under instructions from this Department. 2. All applications and recommendations for discharge will be forwarded to the Commissary General of Prisoners, who will endorse on each application such facts, bearing on the case, as may be matter of record in his office, when the application will be submitted for the decision of the Department, through the Commissioner for the Exchange of Prisoners. 3. In general the mere desire to be discharged upon taking the oath of allegiance will furnish no sufficient ground for such discharge; but cases where it can be shown that the prisoner was impressed into the rebel service, or which can plead in palliation extreme youth, followed by open and declared repentance, with other reasons, whatever they may be, may be specially reported. 4. In all cases a descriptive list of those discharged will be furnished by the officer making the discharge, for file in the office of the Commissary General of Prisoners. 5. The oath of allegiance, when administered, must be taken without qualification, and can in no case carry with it an exemption from any of the duties of a citizen. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: In every case of seizure cf goods by officers acting under the authority of this Department a true and perfect inventory thereof shall be taken in triplicate by the officer making the seizure, one copy of which shall be given to the person from whom the goods were taken, one copy retained by the officer, and the third copy will be forwarded with a report of the seizure, which will be immediately made to this Department. The officer making the seizure will be held accountable for the goods while they are under his charge, and until they are disposed of according to orders from this Department. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY of War: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General. |