may be to pay the men, and will be receipted after the manner of ordinary muster and pay rolls, at the time payment is made. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: L. THOMAS, Adjutant General. General Orders, No. 31. WAR DEP'T, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, The following Act of Congress is published for the information of all concerned: AN ACT to secure to the officers and men actually employed in the Western Department or Department of Missouri, their pay, bounty, and pension. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, That the Secretary of War be and he is hereby authorized and required to allow and pay to the officers, non-commissioned officers, musicians and privates who have been heretofore actually employed in the military service of the United States, whether mustered into actual service or not, where their services were accepted and actually employed by the generals who have been in command of the Department of the West, or the Department of the Missouri, the pay and bounty as in cases of regular enlistment. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the officers, non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates so employed, who may have been wounded or incapacitated for service, shall be entitled to and receive the pension allowed for such disability: Provided, That the length and character of their enlistment and service be such as to entitle them under existing laws to such pension. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the heirs of those killed in battle, or of those who may have died from wounds received while so in service, shall be cntitled to receive the bounty and pay to which they would have been entitled had they been regularly mustered into service: Provided, That the bounty and pay referred to in this act shall not be payable unless their term of enlistment and servicebe of such duration as to entitle them to receive the same, according to existing laws. Approved March 25, 1862. II. First Lieutenant John Adair, 1st Cavalry, is dismissed as a deserter, by direction of the President of the United States, to take effect December 29, 1861. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: L. THOMAS, Adjutant General. General Orders, No. 32. WAR DEP'T, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, April 2, 1862. The following Regulations are published for the information of all concerned: ADDITIONAL PARAGRAPHS ON THE SUBJECT OF PRISONERS OF WAR. (Vide paragraphs 745 to 747, Revised Regulations for the Army, 1861.) 1. A General Commanding in the field, or a Department, will make arrangements for the safe-keeping and reasonable comfort of his prisoners. 2. For this purpose he will place them under guard already on duty, or detach a guard for the special service. 3. The General will give no order exchanging prisoners, or releasing them, except under instructions from the Secretary of War. 4. In emergencies admitting of no delay, the General will act upon his own authority, and give any order in relation to prisoners the public interest might require. promptly reporting his proceedings to the War Department through the Adjutant General. 5. In time of War a Commissary General of Prisoners will be announced, whose general duties will be those of an Inspector. 6 A General Depot for Prisoners will be designated by the Secretary of War, which shall be under the command of the Commissary General of Prisoners, with a body of troops as a guard under his orders. The Depot shall be the Headquarters of the Commissary General, to which communications may be sent. 7. Generals commanding Departments, or in the field. may, at their discre tion, send their prisoners to the General Depot-furnishing proper rolls with them, showing when and where captured, &c.; after which their charge of them will cease. 8. The Commissary General of Prisoners is empowered to visit places at which prisoners may be held, and will recommend to the General, whose guards are responsible for them, whatever modification in their treatment may seem to him proper or necessary, and report the same to the War Department. 9. Generals sending prisoners to the depots, or to special localities, will furnish the Commissary General of Prisoners with the lists or rolls of all prisoners so sent, which the Commissary General of Prisoners will cause to be entered in a proper book, showing the name and designation of each prisoner, the time and place when and where taken. Any special information of importance will be added from time to time in a column of remarks. When disposed of, by exchange or otherwise, the fact, and the authority for it, and the name of the person for whom exchanged, should be noted in this record. 10. The Commissary General of Prisoners shall have authority to call for such reports from officers in command of guards over prisoners as may be necessary for the proper discharge of his own duties. 11. He will make reports monthly, or oftener, if required, to the Adjutant General, showing where and in what numbers prisoners are held, and be in readiness at all times to answer specific questions as to persons. 12. The duties of the Commissary General of Prisoners do not extend to prisoners of State. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: L. THOMAS, Adjutant General. General Orders. No. 33. } WAR DEP'T, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, I.-Captain Donald D. Stith, Fifth Infantry, is, by direction of the President of the United States, dismissed the service, to take effect September 25, 1861. II. In order to secure, as far as possible, the decent interment of those who have fallen, or may fall, in battle, it is made the duty of Commanding Generals to lay off lots of ground in some suitable spot near every battlefield, so soon as it may be in their power, and to cause the remains of those killed to be interred, with headboards to the graves bearing numbers, and, where practicable, the names of the persons buried in them. A register of each burialground will be preserved, in which will be noted the marks corresponding with the headboards. III.-The Recruiting Service for Volunteers will be discontinued in every State from this date. The officers detached on Volunteer Recruiting Service will join their Regiments without delay, taking with them the parties and recruits at their respective stations. The Superintendents of Volunteer Recruiting Service will disband their parties and close their offices, after having taken the necessary steps to carry out these orders. The public property belonging to the Volunteer Recruiting Service will be sold to the best advantage possible, and the proceeds credited to the fund for collecting, drilling and organizing volunteers. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: L. THOMAS, Adjutant General. General Orders,) No. 34. WAR DEP'T, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, I. That portion of Virginia and Maryland lying between the Mountain Department and the Blue Ridge, shall constitute a Military Department to be called the Department of the Shenandoah, and be. under the command of Major General Banks. II. That portion of Virginia east of the Blue Ridge and west of the Potomac, and the Fredericksburg and Richmond Railroad, including the District of Columbia and the country between the Potomac and Patuxent, shall be a Military District to be called the Department of the Rappahannock, and be under the command of Major General McDowell. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: L. THOMAS, Adjutant General. General Orders, No. 35. WAR DEP'T, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, April 5, 1862. First Lieutenant E. D. McMurdy, Nineteenth Infantry, is hereby dropped from the rolls of the Army by direction of the President of the United States. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: L. THOMAS, Adjutant General. General Orders, No. 36. WAR DEP'T, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, April 7, 1862. 1. The General Hospitals are under the direction of the Surgeon General. Orders not involving expense of transportation may be given by him to transfer Medical Officers or Hospital Stewards from one General Hospital to another, as he may deem best for the service. 2.--The Chief Medical Officer to whom the charge of all the General Hospitals in a city may be entrusted, will cause certificates of disability to be made out for such men as, in his judgment, should be discharged. He will be responsible that the certificates are given for good cause, and that they are made in proper form, giving such medical description of the cases, with the degree of disability, as may enable the Pension Office to decide on any claim to pension which may be based upon them. The certificates of disability will be signed by the Chief Medical Officer and forwarded by him to the Military Commander in the city, who shall have authority to order the discharge and dispose of the case according to existing regulations. 3.-The final statements, and all the discharge papers, will be made out under the supervision of the Military Commander, and signed by him. Where the men are provided with their descriptive rolls there will be no delay in discharging them after their certificates of disability are acted on. But if they have no descriptive rolls, application will be made to the Company Commander for the proper discharge papers, and the men may be maintained at the hospital a reasonable time while awaiting them, to avoid their being turned off without means of support. The discharge will, in all cases, bear the date when the papers are actually furnished the soldier. 4.-When a man is received in any hospital without his descriptive roll, the fact will be immediately reported by the Medical Officer in charge to the Military Commander, who will at once call on the Company Commander, in the name of the Secretary of War, promptly to furnish the military history of the man, and his clothing, money, and other accounts with the Govern ment. 5. When too long a delay would arise in discharging the man because of the remote station of his company, application will be made by the Medical Officer to the Adjutant General for such account of the man as his records will furnish. To this partial descriptive roll the Medical Officer will add the period for which pay is due the man since his entry into the hospital. The man will then be discharged and receive the pay and travelling allowances thus shown to be due him, leaving the balance due him on account of clothing, retained pay, &c., for settlement in such manner as may hereafter be determined. 6.-The Military Commander's duties, in reference to all troops and enlisted men who happen to come within the limits of his command, will be precisely those of a commanding officer of a military post. 7. It is made the duty of each Military Commander to correct, as far as may be in his power, the evils and irregularities arising from the peculiar state of the service at this time, by collecting stragglers and sending them forward to their proper stations, or discharging them on certificates of disability, if, on examination by the Chief Medical Officer, they be found unfit for the service. 8.--The Military Commander in each city will have control of such guards as may be furnished to preserve discipline and good order at the several military hospitals. He will advise the Adjutant General of the Army what number of companies will be required for such guards. He will cause them to be properly posted, relieved, and instructed. 9.-Whenever the Chief Medical Officer shall report a number of patients as fit to join their Regiments, the Military Commander will give the necessary orders to have them forwarded in good order and under suitable conduct. 10.--The Chief Medical Officer in each city is authorized to employ as cooks, nurses, and attendants, any convalescent, wounded, or feeble men, who can perform such duties, instead of giving them discharges. 11. All officers and enlisted men of Volunteers who are on parole not to serve against the rebels, will be considered on leave of absence, until notified of their exchange or discharge. They will immediately report their address to the Governors of their States, who will be duly informed from this office as to their exchange or discharge. 12. The duties of Military Commanders, as above defined, will devolve, in the District of Columbia, on the Military Governor; in the city of Baltimore, on the Commander of the Middle Department; in the city of Philadelphia, on Lieutenant Colonel H. Brooks, Second Artillery, hereby assigned to that station; in the city of New York, and the military posts in that vicinity, on Brevet Brigadier General H. Brown, Colonel Fifth United States Artillery. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: L. THOMAS, Adjutant General. General Orders, } No. 37. WAR DEP'T, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, April 8, 1862. The following Resolution of Congress is published for the information of all concerned : A RESOLUTION to authorize the President to assign the command of troops in the same field or department to officers of the same grade, without regard to seniority. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever military operations may require the presence of two or more officers of the same grade in the same field or de-. partment, the President may assign the command of the forces in such field or department, without regard to seniority of rank. Approved April 4, 1862. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: L. THOMAS, Adjutant General. General Orders, } No. 38. WAR DEP'T, Adjutant General's Office, Washington, April 8, 1862. Colonel Anson tager, Assistant Quartermaster, has been appointed Military Superintendent of Telegraph Lines throughout the United States. Commanding Officers in the military service will, upon the requisition of Colonel Stager, or of his Assistants, give such aid as may be necessary in the construction, repair and protection of military telegraph lines; and will furnish to the employees connected with those lines, transportation, rations in kind, fuel, lights, stationery, and shelter, such as are allowed to other government employees. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: L. THOMAS, Adjutant General. General Orders, No. 39. WAR DEP'T, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Serious charges of misconduct and neglect of duty having been made against Brigade Surgeons Henry S. Hewitt and G. W. Stipp, and there being no time for their trial during the active operations now in progress, they are relieved from duty, and will repair to Newport Barracks and await orders. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: L. THOMAS, Adjutant General. General Orders, No. 40. WAR DEP'T, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, The Secretary of War has observed, with some surprise, that the commanders of one or two military departments, conceiving themselves empowered to do so, have undertaken to accept the resignations of, and otherwise discharge from the service of the United States, officers commissioned or appointed by the President, in the volunteer staff of the Army. All such discharges are irregular, and, unless confirmed by the President, |