may take from those for which they are accountable such articles as they require for their personal use, or may furnish them to officers of their commands for like purpose. In such cases they will refund the cost of the articles to the Ordnance Department by depositing the money with an assistant treasurer or an authorized depositary, and taking and transmitting the customary certificates.

1503. Officers serving with troops may draw for their personal use, from stores belonging to the command with which they are serving, one regulation rifle or carbine, and one revolver, with the appropriate belts, carbine slings, and cartridge boxes, and the usual quantity of ammunition for each arm. This ordnance property may be used in action or target practice, and will be accounted for in the same manner as similar stores belonging to the United States in the hands of troops.

1504. Ordnance stores will not be loaned to any person, and any officer violating this rule will be held responsible for the money value of the articles.

1505. An officer who makes an issue of ordnance stores to one not in command of troops, except under orders from competent authority, will be charged with the money value of the stores so issued.

1506. Department commanders may, in cases of emergency, direct the sale of arms and ammunition of calibers not used in service, at exposed frontier settlements, to actual settlers for their protection, when they have not the means and facilities to provide for themselves. Officers who make the sales will be required to file with their returns the department commander's authority for the same, and his explanation of the emergency requiring it. No deduction in price will be made on account of failure of purchasers to take bayonets.

1507. The issue or sale of arms, ammunition, or other ordnance stores to Indians not in the military service, or to Indian agents, will not be made except by the special authority of the Secretary of War.

1508. Civilian employees of the War Department may be armed when necessary for the protection of life or public property, and the same responsibility attaches to the officers accountable for the arms furnished them that attaches to those accountable for the arms in the hands of enlisted men.

1509. The sale of ammunition to civilians belonging to exploring or surveying expeditions authorized by law, and to civilian employees of the War Department, may be made for hunting purposes when considered necessary for their subsistence, or for the interest of the United States.

A

1510. Arms lost, destroyed, or embezzled by civilian employees will be charged in the same manner as stores similarly lost by enlisted men. certified statement of the fact will be made in duplicate, and the money accounted for to the Ordnance Department. One copy of the statement is filed with the return.

EXPENDITURE OF AMMUNITION.

1511. Ammunition will only be expended in action, in defense of life or public property, in target practice, in the preliminary instruction of the soldier, in hunting, and for authorized salutes.

1512. The officer's certificate as to the necessity for all expenditures of ammunition must accompany his property return, and when ammunition

212

SURPLUS AND DAMAGED ORDNANCE STORES.

is dropped from his return as "expended in action by civil employees," a statement giving the place, date, and attending circumstances, sufficiently in detail to insure verification, must be filed with the return.

1513. Ammunition expended by a soldier without orders, or not in the line of duty, or which may be damaged or lost through his neglect, will be charged to him.

1514. When ammunition is furnished to civilian employees it is not to be dropped from the returns uniess expended in action, or in hunting when necessary to obtain subsistence. Ammunition not so expended will be returned to the responsible officer and accounted for by him, or paid for at the price fixed.

SURPLUS AND DAMAGED STORES.

1515. Serviceable surplus ordnance stores may be turned in at the nearest arsenal, on the order of a department commander, or if in the hands of a recruiting officer, on the order of the Adjutant-General of the Army. 1516. Officers in charge of arsenals and ordnance depots will afford every facility to officers authorized to turn in property. They will give receipts for it according to condition.

1517. Whenever canteens become unserviceable because of worn-out covers or lost corks, they will not be presented for condemnation, but will be repaired by the troops. Timely requisitions will be made on the Ordnance Department for extra covers, corks, etc., with which to repair them.

1518. On arrival of recruits at their destination, the clothing bags, haversacks, meat cans, tin cups, knives, forks, spoons, and canteens in their possession will be properly packed and turned over to the Quartermaster's Department for transportation to an arsenal to be designated by the Chief of Ordnance for repairs and subsequent issue to recruiting stations and recruit rendezvous. Should any of these stores be needed for the proper equipment of the organization to which the recruits are sent, they may be retained and report thereof made at once to the Chief of Ordnance.

1519. Ordinary repairs can usually be made in the company, or at the post, with the means provided for that purpose by the Ordnance Department. When the repairs required are too extensive to be thus made, an inspector should recommend that the stores be sent to an arsenal to be designated by the Chief of Ordnance. A certified extract from the inspection report, accompanying the invoices, is the officer's authority for turning them in.

1520. In the absence of an inspecting officer, department commanders may direct all arms, accoutrements or equipments needing repairs, which can not be made by the troops, to be sent to an arsenal to be designated by the Chief of Ordnance.

1521. No officer will turn in any unserviceable ordnance stores except as provided in these regulations.

1522. Lists of prices to be charged against soldiers for the loss of or damage to firearms are published from time to time.

1523. Arm chests not required for the storage of supplies will be returned to the nearest arsenal or ordnance depot when the cost of transportation is not greater than the value of the property. Officers to whom such chests have been issued will be charged with their value if they are d.

d

INSPECTION OF ORDNANCE SUPPLIES.

1524. Before final disposition of ordnance supplies which from any cause are worn out or damaged, they will be submitted to an inspector.

1525. When sales of ordnance stores are recommended, all of the copies of the inspection report will be forwarded by the department commander direct to the Chief of Ordnance, for the final action of the Secretary of War. 1526. When the recommendation of an inspector for sale of ordnance supplies is approved, two copies of the report will be returned to the officer accountable for the stores, through the headquarters of the department in which he may be serving, with detailed instructions how to make the sales and account for the proceeds, and one copy transmitted to the InspectorGeneral. One copy of each inventory and inspection report must accompany the return.

PACKING AND TRANSPORTATION.

1527. Officers who ship arms of any description are held responsible that they are so packed that, under ordinary handling, they can not break loose from their fastenings in the boxes, and that no loaded arm is packed for transportation. When loaded arms, or arms insecurely packed, are received by an officer, he will report the facts direct to the Chief of Ordnance.

1528. After packing arms or other ordnance stores for shipment, the covers and bottoms of the arm chests and packing boxes will, if possible, be sealed with wax and stamped with an official mark by the officer responsible. The lid will be secured by screws, at least two of which will be sealed. Each board on top and bottom will have at least one sealed screw. The screw heads will be countersunk to a depth sufficient to protect the wax seal from injury. The design of the seal will designate the arsenal or post from which the shipment is made, or the name of the shipping officer.

1529. The Ordnance Department will prepare official stamps for sealing boxes, and distribute them in duplicate to each company. Company commanders will account for them in their quarterly returns of ordnance stores and use them exclusively for purposes intended.

1530. The name of the invoicing officer, the gross weight of all boxes and date of weighing will be distinctly marked thereon. Each quartermaster who ships or receives ordnance stores will satisfy himself that the seals on the packages are unbroken. If the seals should be broken and any stores lost, he will cause the value of the lost stores to be charged to the carrier.

1531. For transportation, ordnance stores will be turned over to the Quartermaster's Department, with duplicate invoices; a third invoice, with duplicate receipts, to be signed by the receiving officer, will be sent direct to him by mail. Materials procured for current use at ordnance establishments will be transported at the expense of the Ordnance Department.

RETURNS AND REPORTS.

1532. Officers accountable for ordnance funds will render the returns and statements required by Ordnance Regulations.

1533. Officers or ordnance sergeants accountable for ordnance and ordnance stores will render a quarterly return thereof direct to the Chief of Ordnance, within twenty days after the expiration of each quarter.

1534. Records of artillery firing will be kept by commanding officers of permanent forts and batteries, and a copy forwarded direct to the Chief of Ordnance at the end of February, April, June, August, October, and December of each year.

1535. Requisitions for blanks and blank books required for the use of the Ordnance Department will be made quarterly, or when needed, by every regiment and company. Those suited to every command and arm of the service can be obtained upon application to the Chief of Ordnance.

1536. In the care and preservation of artillery material, magazines, small arms, etc., the instructions contained in the authorized Manual of Heavy Artillery and the publications of the Ordnance Department will be observed.

ARTICLE LXXXIV.

THE SIGNAL CORPS.

1537. The Chief Signal Officer is charged, under the Secretary of War, with the direction of the Signal Bureau; with the control of the officers, enlisted men, and employees attached thereto; with the construction, repair, and operation of military telegraph lines; with the supervision of such instruction in military signaling and telegraphy as may be prescribed in orders from the War Department; with the procurement, preservation, and distribution of the necessary supplies for the Signal Corps. He has charge of all military signal duties, and of books, papers, and devices connected therewith, including telegraph and telephone apparatus and the necessary meteorological instruments for target ranges and other military uses; of collecting and transmitting information for the Army, by telegraph or otherwise, and all other duties pertaining to military signaling.

1538. Vacancies in the grade of first lieutenant in the Signal Corps are filled by transfer from the line of the Army. To be eligible, an officer must be less than thirty years of age, have served at least two years as an officer in the line, and have passed a satisfactory examination before a board of officers of the Signal Corps. Applications for examination will be made to the Adjutant-General of the Army. Should the applicant be directed to appear before a board, he will, after passing a satisfactory examination as to his physical qualifications, be examined upon the following subjects, or such others as the Secretary of War may prescribe: Theoretical and practical electricity, modern languages, chemistry and optics, military surveying and reconnaissance. The board will inquire into and consider the special military fitness for the Signal Corps of the candidate and require from him an essay on a military subject.

1539. The number of sergeants of each class at each signal station will be fixed by the Chief Signal Officer. They will be enlisted and may be mustered, at his discretion, in the class for which competent, and in which there is a vacancy. Sergeants are promoted and reduced in the classes of their grade as fixed by law by the Chief Signal Officer.

1540. An officer having charge of the descriptive list of a sergeant of the Signal Corps not mustered at a garrisoned post will forward monthly to the Chief Signal Officer direct a copy of all remarks made on the descriptive list, also of the list when transferred to any other officer.

1541. The senior signal officer of an army in the field commands the signal parties serving therein. Orders affecting them will be transmitted through him, and he will be responsible that they are fully instructed, adequately supplied, and that they properly perform their duties. He will keep himself informed of the position of the army and of the enemy, and under the instruction of the general commanding will establish his stations. He will submit reports of operations to the general commanding, and forward copies thereof to the Chief Signal Officer in Washington, to whom he will report monthly his station, the strength and condition of his parties, and all other matters pertaining to their duties and equipment.

1542. When telegraph lines are, by order of the Secretary of War, placed under charge of signal officers, they will be held responsible for their construction, maintenance, and operation. Commanding officers and others will see that the special duties of these officers are not interfered with, and upon proper application will render any assistance in their power.

1543. Official and military messages will have precedence. Communications transmitted by telegraph or signals are always confidential, and will not be revealed except to those officially entitled to receive them.

1544. Department commanders will require suitable instruction and practice in military signaling in their departments. To this end they will cause a signal officer to be detailed at each post, who will give necessary instruction and supervise field practice during at least two months of the year. Constant instruction will be maintained until at least one officer and four enlisted men of each company are proficient in the exchange of both day and night signals by flag, torch, and heliograph. The detail will be changed from time to time. For each month in which instruction and practice are held, reports thereof will be rendered to the Chief Signal Officer, through department commanders.

1545. As the Army signal code differs from the Navy code, code cards and instructions in detail for using each will be furnished by the Chief Signal Officer upon application.

1546. Signal supplies will be furnished by the Signal Bureau to posts and such organizations as require them, on requisitions approved by department commanders. They will be receipted for by signal officers and will be accounted for to the Chief Signal Officer on forms furnished for the purpose. Telescopes, field glasses, heliographs, and telephones, when unserviceable, will not be submitted to an inspector for condemnation without previous authority of the Chief Signal Officer.

1547. Quartermasters and commissaries will issue to signal parties serving in their vicinity such supplies from their respective departments as may be necessary for their proper equipment and subsistence, on the requisition of the officer in charge of such parties.

ARTICLE LXXXV.

UNIFORM.

1548. The uniform and equipments of officers and enlisted men will be prescribed in special regulations published by authority of the Secretary of War.