the medical directors, either by general instructions or specially by telegraph, to what points they shall be sent. Officers whose duty it may become to forward such detachments will take care that no men, except those provided with written passes from their hospital surgeon or the medical director, shall be allowed to go. Furloughs will not be given by captains of companies or colonels of regiments on any pretext whatever. A furlough from such authority will not relieve a soldier from the charge of desertion. Enlisted men absent from their regiments without proper authority are in fact deserters, and not only forfeit all pay and allowances, but are subject to the penalties awarded by law to such offenders. No plea of sickness or other cause not officially established, and no certificate of a physician in civil life, unless it be approved by some officer acting as a military commander, will hereafter avail to remove the charge of desertion or procure arrears of pay when a soldier has been mustered as absent from his regiment without leave. By application to the Governors of their States, or to any military commander or U. S. mustering officer in a city, transportation can be procured to their regiments by soldiers who are otherwise able to join them. Where no military commander has been appointed, the senior officer of the Army on duty as mustering or recruiting officer in the place is hereby authorized and required to act in that capacity until another may be appointed. Under General Orders, No. 36, it is the duty of military commanders to collect all stragglers and forward them to their regiments. To do this they must establish camps or depots, under strict military discipline, and maintain sufficient guards to enforce this order. Convalescents in army hospitals will be reported by the surgeons in charge to the military commanders, to be kept at their camps or depots until they can be sent to join their regiments. Muster-rolls of each detachment will be made out from the best data at hand, the statement of the men being taken in the absence of other information concerning them. A duplicate of each muster-roll must be forwarded to the Adjutant-General the day the detachment starts. To avoid confusion and retain necessary control over all soldiers in the U. S. service, those who are entertained in State or private hospitals must be subject to the nearest military commander, and are hereby required to report to him in person as soon as they become convalescent. Immediately after receipt of this order each military commander will publish three times in some newspaper a brief notice requiring all U. S. soldiers in that city and the country around who are not under treatment in a U. S. hospital to report themselves to him without delay, on penalty of being considered deserters. In cases of serious disability from wounds or sickness, which may prevent obedience to this requirement, the soldier must furnish a certificate of a physician of good standing, describing his case, on which, if satisfactory, the military commander may grant a written furlough for not exceeding thirty days, or a discharge on the prescribed form of a certificate of disability, made out strictly according to the regulations. But no discharges will be given on account of rheumatism, or where there is a prospect of recovery within a reasonable time. Military commanders may discharge men, at their own request, who exhibit to them satisfactory proof of their being paroled prisoners of To other paroled men they will give furloughs until notified of their exchange or discharged the service. war. Military commanders will report to the Adjutant-General trimonthly the names, companies, regiments, and residences of all the soldiers furloughed or discharged by them, and forward at the same time the certificates of disability in case of discharge. They will make timely requisitions for the blanks and such other things as may be necessary for the proper execution of this order. By order of the Secretary of War: L. THOMAS, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, His Excellency the GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS, Boston, Mass.: SIR: I have the honor to inform you, in reply to your letter addressed to the Secretary of War, dated 7th instant, that the hunters and marksmen therein referred to cannot be accepted as a company of sharpshooters, but may be assigned to a regiment in process of organization, in which case, however, they would receive the same arms as those furnished the entire regiment. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. E. M. STANTON: GEO. D. RUGGLES, Assistant Adjutant-General. INDIANAPOLIS, June 13, 1862. Just returned after an absence of two weeks. An inquiry how soon we could raise five regiments was answered that it could be done in four or five weeks, and the question asked, Shall we raise them? No answer to this was received. If you want five regiments from Indiana you can have them. I am reorganizing the Twelfth and Sixteenth. Please answer. Governor MORTON, Indianapolis: O. P. MORTON, WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington City, D. C., June 13, 1862. We want all the troops you can raise, and as speedily as they can be had. Orders to that effect were directed to be sent you by the Adjutant-General, and I supposed and believed that it was done, and cannot account for their not reaching you. Hon. GALUSHA A. GROW, EDWIN M. STANTON, WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington City, D. C., June 14, 1862. Speaker of the House of Representatives: SIR: A resolution of the House of Representatives has been received, which passed the 9th instant, to the following effect: Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to inform this House if General Hunter, of the Department of South Carolina, has organized a regiment of South Carolina volunteers for the defense of the Union composed of black men (fugitive slaves) and appointed the colonel and other officers to command them. 2. Was he authorized by the Department to organize and muster into the Army of the United States as soldiers the fugitive or captive slaves? 3. Has he been furnished with clothing, uniforms, &c., for such force? 4. Has he been furnished, by order of the Department of War, with arms to be placed in the hands of those slaves? 5. To report any orders given said Hunter and correspondence between him and the Department. In answer to the foregoing resolution I have the honor to inform the House First. That this Department has no official information whether General Hunter, of the Department of South Carolina, has or has not organized a regiment of South Carolina volunteers for the defense of the Union composed of black men (fugitive slaves) and appointed the colonel and other officers to command them. In order to ascertain whether he has done so or not a copy of the House resolution has been transmitted to General Hunter, with instructions to make immediate report thereon. Second. General Hunter was not authorized by the Department to organize and muster into the Army of the United States the fugitive or captive slaves. Third. General Hunter, upon his requisition as commander of the South, has been furnished with clothing and arms for the force under his command without instructions as to how they should be used. Fourth. He has not been furnished, by order of the Department of War, with arms to be placed in the hands of "those slaves." Fifth. In respect to so much of said resolution as directs the Secretary "to report to the House any orders given said Hunter and correspondence between him and the Department," the President instructs me to answer that the report at this time of the orders given to and correspondence between General Hunter and this Department would, in his opinion, be improper and incompatible with the public welfare. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, EDWIN M. STANTON, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.: SIR: From estimates based on applications already received under General Orders, No. 49, for recruits for regiments from this State, and under which none have thus far been recruited, it is manifest that not less than 25,000 men will be required for this branch of the service in addition to the new regiments to be organized. To enable me to meet the requirements of the War Department in this important subject I respectfully submit the following suggestions: First. That existing vacancies in regiments now in service, or at least a portion of them, be retained as an incentive and reward to persons who are appointed to recruit for them, or that incomplete companies shall be consolidated and the officers sent home to recruit new companies for the numbers thus rendered vacant. The first proposition would have the advantage of affording a stimulus for exertion, as the position of persons recruiting would depend on their success; but it would to some extent prevent the promotion of meritorious officers now in service. The second plan would avoid this difficulty, but would not present the same motive for exertion, the position of officers being fixed from the start. Second. I would further recommend that the period of service be limited to the unexpired term of the regiments to which the recruits are to be sent. It is believed that this modification of existing regulations would greatly stimulate the recruiting service and enable me to fill up our regiments much more promptly. Third. It is of the utmost importance, not only to the recruiting service, but to the success of the new regiments, that arrangements should be made for the payment of expenses, and that the disbursing officers on duty here should have full and definite instructions. It is presumed, also, that the proper officers will be instructed to enter into contracts for subsiste ace at the depots established at New York, Elmira, and Albany, and that the officers connected with departments of issue will be prepared to meet my requisitions for clothing and arms. Should these recommendations meet the approval of the War Department, I respectfully request that the necessary orders may be issued to carry them into effect. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, E. D. MORGAN, Governor of New York. [JUNE 14, 1862.-For Thomas to Butler, authorizing the organization of 5,000 loyal white men, see Series I, Vol. XV, p. 493.] Hon. E. M. STANTON, ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Secretary of War: SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 7th instant, inclosing a copy of Special Orders, No. 80, and other papers, and requesting my opinion whether, under the circumstances, you had authority to issue that order. The order in question is in these words: 2. Col. William Weer, having been illegally deposed by the Governor of Kansas, is reinstated in his position of colonel Fourth Regiment Kansas Volunteers. Any orders that may have been given by the Governor of Kansas for the consolidation of the Fourth Regiment with other Kansas troops are hereby revoked, and the regiment will preserve the organization it had prior to the issue of such order. As your letter contains no statement of the facts under which this question arises, there are some things necessary to its intelligent consideration which I am compelled to assume as true, without explicit information; and it is only on this assumed basis of fact that I now undertake to express an opinion. If I am wrong in my assumption, you, having the means of knowing the truth, will be best able to estimate the value of my conclusions. I assume, then, that the Fourth Regiment of Kansas Volunteers was one of the volunteer regiments accepted by the President under the provisions of the act of July 22, 1861, to authorize the employment of volunteers, &c., and as such was mustered into the service of the United States; that Col. William Weer was its commanding officer; and that since the regiment was mustered into the service of the United States, and whilst in that service, the Governor of Kansas has attempted to depose Colonel Weer from its command, and to consolidate it with other Kansas troops. If these be the facts, in my opinion the action of the Governor of Kansas was without authority of law, and Order No. 80 was a proper and legal exercise of the power of the Secretary of War as the minister of the President of the United States. By the second section of the act of July 22, 1861, the volunteers accepted by the President are made "subject to the rules and regulations governing the Army of the United States," and they are to be formed "by the President into regiments of infantry, with the exception of such numbers of cavalry and artillery as he may direct, &c., and to be organized as in the regular service." The same section designates the officers of these regiments and provides further for their organization. Among the rules and regulations governing the Army of the United States, to which these volunteers are thus subjected, are the Rules and Articles of War, one of which (the 11th) declares that a commissioned officer shall not be discharged the service but by order of the President of the United States, or by sentence of a general court-martial. (Bright. Dig., 74.) This rule is as applicable to the commissioned officers of volunteers mustered into the service of the United States under the act of July 22, 1861, as it is to commissioned officers of the Regular Army. If the action of the Governor of Kansas in deposing Colonel Weer was intended to discharge him from the service, it was directly in the face of this rule, and is of course utterly illegal. But if it was only intended to remove him from the command of the Fourth Regiment of Kansas Volunteers, it was not less illegal. For that regiment, having been accepted by the President and mustered into the service of the United States, was under the command of the President of the United States, as Commander-in-Chief, and not under the command of the Governor of Kansas. A loose idea seems to prevail in some quarters that the Governors of the States have the right to control the organization of the troops from their respective States, even after they are received into the service of the United States, and I presume it was under this impression that the Governor of Kansas attempted to interfere with the organization of the Fourth Regiment in the present instance. If so, he was greatly mistaken. It is true that by the constitutions of most, if not all, of the States, the Governor is made commander-in-chief of the militia, but he remains commanderin-chief only until the militia are called into the actual service of the United States, when, by the national Constitution (Art. II, sec. 2), the President becomes their Commander-in-Chief. It is not necessary to consider whether any distinction exists between the militia and volunteers accepted under the act of July 22, 1861, since in neither case are the troops in the service of the United States less under the command of the President, and none of the constitutional reservations in favor of militia will help the claim of the Governor of a State to interfere with the organization of a regiment from his State either by removing its officers or consolidating it with other troops after it has entered the national service. Those reservations are found in the seventeenth clause of Section 8, Article I, of the Constitution, which confers on Congress the power "to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States, respectively, the appointment of the officers and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress." But even if the right of the Governor, under the laws of the State he represents, to appoint the officers and train the militia be unques |