accompanied by that of his Regimental or Detachment Commander, setting forth that he has made all proper efforts to have himself mustered in, but without success, before the time at which he now presents himself These affidavits must be attached to the copy of the muster-in roll in tended for the Adjutant General. 5th. No officer shall be mustered in to date back beyond the time that he has actually been performing the duties of the grade into which he desires to be mustered, nor beyond the time at which a vacancy is proved to have existed by the regimental or company records. If on the muster and pay rolls the applicant appears mustered for pay in one grade, he cannot be mustered into the service, to cover the same period, as of any other. Gross errors, on this point, are frequently committed by mustering officers; therefore, special attention is invited to it. 6th. Musters into and out of service must be made for each new grade of commissioned officers, as well as when enlisted men or citizens are appointed commissioned officers. A discharge in Orders, or by order of the proper authority, is in all cases a muster-out of the service of the United States, and no muster-out rolls will be furnished in such cases. 7th. Musters-in and out must be made on separate rolls, and a separate roll must be made for each grade. Officers or enlisted men of different companies or regiments must not be mustered in, or out, on the same rolls. 8th. Hereafter, no person will be taken up on any muster rolls as an officer, of any grade, until mustered into the service of the United States as such, in that grade, whether he be commissioned by the Governor or not, unless he be appointed or commissioned by the President. Paymasters will closely observe, and report, all violations of this paragraph. 9th. A muster once made will in no case be altered, except by authority from the Adjutant General of the Army, and all applications for alterations must pass through the mustering officer, if possible. 10th. Troops organizing in their respective 'States-including recruits for regiments in the field—and those organized, and not in the field, will be mustered by the duly appointed mustering officers for the States. Said officers have no authority to muster commissioned officers belonging to organizations which have left the State. (See paragraph 4.) The mustering officers, for States, will closely observe the requirements of paragraph 8. 11th. Enlisted men having received commissions or appointments, will not be mustered in as commissioned officers until they shall have been discharged as soldiers by the Department or Corps Commander. 12th. The directions contained in the pamphlet of Instructions to Mustering officers will be followed in all cases. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: L. THOMAS, Adjutant General. GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, No. 49. ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, I..The following rules in regard to paroles, established by the common law and usages of war, are published for the information of all concerned: 1. Paroling must always take place by the exchange of signed duplicates of a written document, in which the name and rank of the parties paroled are correctly stated. Any one who intentionally misstates his rank, forfeits the benefit of his parole, and is liable to punishment. 2. None but commissioned officers can give the parole for themselves or their commands, and no inferior officer can give a parole without the authority of his superior, if within reach. 3. No paroling on the battle-field, no paroling of entire bodies of troops after a battle, and no dismissal of large numbers of prisoners, with a general declaration that they are paroled, is permitted, or of any value. 4. An officer who gives a parole for himself or his command on the battle-field is deemed a deserter, and will be punished accordingly. 5. For the officer, the pledging of his parole is an individual act, and no wholesale paroling by an officer, for a number of inferiors in rank, is permitted or valid. 6. No non-commissioned officer or private can give his parole except through an officer. Individual paroles not given through an officer are not only void, but subject the individual giving them to the punishment of death as deserters. The only admissible exception is where individuals, properly separated from their commands, have suffered long confinement without the possibility of being paroled through an officer. 7. No prisoners of war can be forced by the hostile government to pledge his parole, and any threat or ill-treatment to force the giving of the parole is contrary to the law of war. 8. No prisoner of war can enter into engagements inconsistent with his character and duties as a citizen and a subject of his State. He cau only bind himself not to bear arms against his captor for a limited period, or until he is exchanged, and this only with the stipulated or implied consent of his own government. If the engagement which he makes is not approved by his government, he is bound to return and surrender himself as a prisoner of war. His own government cannot at the same time disown his engagement and refuse his return as a prisoner. 9. No one can pledge his parole that he will never bear arms against the government of his captors, nor that he will not bear arms against any other enemy of his government, not at the time the ally of his captors. Such agreements have reference only to the existing enemy and his existing allies, and to the existing war, and not to future belligerents. 10. While the pledging of the military parole is a voluntary act of the individual, the capturing power is not obliged to grant it, nor is the government of the individual paroled bound to approve or ratify it. 11. Paroles not authorized by the common law of war, are not valid till approved by the government of the individual so pledging his parole. 12. The pledging of any unauthorized military parole is a military offence, punishable under the common law of war. II..This order will be published at the head of every regiment in the service of the United States, and will be officially communicated by every General commanding an army in the field to the Commanding General of the opposing forces, and will be hereafter strictly observed and enforced in the armies of the United States. BY ORDER OF MAJOR GENERAL H. W. HALLECK: L. THOMAS, Adjutant General. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. A Proclamation respecting Soldiers absent without leave. EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 10, 1863. In pursuance of the twenty-sixth section of the act of Congress, entitled "An act for enrolling and calling out the National Forces, and for other purposes," approved on the third day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, do hereby order and command that all soldiers enlisted or drafted in the service of the United States, now absent from their regiments without leave, shall forthwith return to their respective regiments. And I do hereby declare and proclaim that all soldiers now absent from their respective regiments without leave, who shall, on or before the first day of April, 1863, report themselves at any rendezvous designated by the General Orders of the War Department number fifty-eight, hereto annexed, may be restored to their respective regiments without punishment, except the forfeiture of pay and allowances during their absence; and all who do not return within the time above specified shall be arrested as deserters, and punished as the law provides. And whereas evil-disposed and disloyal persons at sundry places have enticed and procured soldiers to desert and absent themselves from their regiments, thereby weakening the strength of the armies and prolonging the war, giving aid and comfort to the enemy, and cruelly exposing the gallant and faithful soldiers remaining in the ranks to increased hardships and danger, I do therefore call upon all patriotic and faithful citizens to oppose and resist the aforementioned dangerous and treasonable crimes, and to aid in restoring to their regiments all soldiers absent without leave, and to assist in the execution of the act of Congress "for enrolling and calling out the National Forces, and for other purposes," and to support the proper authorities in the prosecution and punishment of offenders against said act, and in suppressing the insurrection and rebellion. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand. Done at the city of Washington, this tenth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, No. 58. ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, I..The following is the twenty-sixth section of the act "For enrolling and calling out the National Forces, and for other purposes," approved March 3, 1863: SECTION 26. And be it further enacted, That, immediately after the passage of this act, the President shall issue his proclamation declaring that all soldiers now absent from their regiments without leave may return, within a time specified, to such place or places as he may indicate in his proclamation, and be restored to their respective regiments without punishment, except the forfeiture of their pay and allowances during their absence; and all deserters who shall not return within the time so specified by the President, shall, upon being arrested, be punished as the law provides. II..The following places are designated as rendezvous to which soldiers absent without leave may report themselves to the officers named, on or before the first day of April next, under the proclamation of the President of this date: At Augusta, Maine, to Major F. N. Clarke, U. S. A. At Concord, New Hampshire, to Major J. H. Whittlesey, U. S. A. At Boston, Massachusetts, to Colonel H. Day, U. S. A. At Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Lieutenant Colonel C. F. Ruff, U. S. A. At Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Captain R. J. Dodge, U. S. A. At Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to Captain E. H. Ludington, U. S. A. At Wilmington, Delaware, to Major H. B. Judd, U. S. A. At Baltimore, Maryland, to Major H. W. Wharton, U. S. A. At the city of Washington, District of Columbia, to Major General S. P. Heintzelman, U. S. V. |