4. The Commander of each Army Corps or Department in which the employment of Signal parties is now, or may be, authorized, will immediately appoint a Board of three officers, two of whom shall be officers now on Signal duty, and the third a Medical Officer, for the examination of enlisted men now on Signal duty who are candidates for transfer to, or enlistment in, the Signal Corps, and, if necessary to complete the organization of the Signal parties in their command, such other persons as they may authorize to report for examination, as candidates for enlistment. If the Army Corps forms a part of an Army, then orders will be subject to the approval of the Commanding General of that Army.

5. The Board instituted by the 1st section will hold its sessions in the city of Washington, will adjourn from time to time, according to the business before it, and be reassembled by the order of its President. It will call before it the officers to be examined by requisitions upon the Commanding Generals of the Armies or Departments in which they are serving; but, in order that no inconvenience to the service shall result, these requisitions shall be subject to the discretion of the Commanding General as to the time and order in which the officers called for shall report, care being taken that the officers to be withdrawn shall be replaced in advance, as far as practicable, by others who have passed satisfactory examinations.

6. The Boards instituted by section 3 will report in succession at the Headquarters of the Army, Army Corps, or Departments in the Districts to which they may be assigned, and will be subject to the discretion of the Commanding Generals as to the time and place of meeting, and the order in which candidates are to be examined.

7. Examining Boards will be governed by the following rules: First. Candidates for commissions shall be examined upon Reading, Writing, Composition, and Arithmetic; Elementary Chemistry, and' the elementary branches of Natural Philosophy, Surveying, and Topography; the use and management of Field Signals and Field Telegraphs; and those who have served in the Acting Corps, upon the mode of conducting Signal parties in the field, and in the presence of the enemy, and upon rendering the proper papers and reports.

Second. Candidates for warrants shall be examined upon Reading, Writing, Geography, and Arithmetic.

Third. No person shall be recommended for appointment or enlistment in the Signal Corps who is not of good moral character, and physically competent for the duties.

Fourth. The several examining Boards will adopt such forms of proceeding in questions upon the different branches of education enumerated above, or employ such other methods of ascertaining the merits of the different candidates, as may seem expedient, having due reference to their mental and physical qualifications.

8. The principal and auxiliary examining Boards will make to the Secretary of War, through the Signal Officer, weekly reports of the examinations made by them, designating by name, regiment, age, nativity, &c., of the persons examined, the grade for which they are recommended, and their recent standing, as determined by the examination, and by their record of service. In the case of the auxiliary Boards, directed by sections 3 and 4, these reports will be transmitted through the Commanding Generals of the Army or Department in which the examinations were made.

9. As soon as the examinations of the auxiliary boards have been completed, a revising Board, constituted as directed in the first section, with the addition of the Majors who were members of the Boards directed by the third section, will assemble in this city for the purpose of reviewing the action of the several examining Boards; determining the relative standing of the officers of each grade; the rules to be observed in the appointments to the grade of First and Second Lieutenants; the classification of enlisted men; and making such other recommendations as may have been suggested by observation and experience as essential to a perfect organization of the Corps.

10. Until the reports of the revising Board have been approved by the Secretary of War the appointments in the Signal Corps will be limited to the Colonel and the two Majors, one Captain, two First Lieutenants, and four Second Lieutenants for each Army Corps or Department in which Signal parties have been or may be authorized; and the enlistments or transfers to one Sergeant, two Privates of the first class, and four Privates of the second class. The appointments thus made to be temporary; and the permanent standing of the Officers to be determined by the action of the President, upon the recommendations of the reviewing Board.

11. In order to facilitate as much as possible the organization of the Corps, the Commanders of Army Corps and Departments are authorized to transfer enlisted men, now employed on Signal duty who have passed satisfactory examinations, to the Signal Corps, copies of the muster and descriptive rolls of the men so transferred being sent to the Headquarters of the Corps in this city; and the Chief Signal Officers in each Army Corps or Department are authorized to complete the Signal parties under their charge by the enlistment of a sufficient number of approved candidates: Provided, That all officers and men now on Signal duty, who may fail to pass satisfactory examinations, shall be returned to their regiments; and any officers and men retained in the service under the provisions of War Department General Orders No. 92, who, in like manner, fail to pass satisfactory examinations, shall at once be discharged from the service of the United States by the Commander of the Army or Department in which they are serving.

12. The Chief Signal Officer in an Army Corps or Department is authorized to appoint, upon the recommendation of the examining Board, and subject to the approval of the Colonel of the Corps, the Sergeants authorized for the parties under his charge, and, upon a like recommendation and approval, to designate the privates of the first and second classes.

13. Recruiting for the Signal Corps will be conducted under the rules prescribed for the regimental recruiting service. Enlistments will be made for the period of three years, or during the war; but enlisted men now on duty in the Signal Corps may re-enlist for the period of one or two years, and will be entitled to the benefits provided by the 18th section of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1863. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant General.

GENERAL ORDERS,

WAR DEPARTMENT,

No. 108.

ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, April 28, 1863.

I.. Whenever volunteer troops are mustered out of service, the entire regiment, or other organization, will be considered as mustered out at one time and place, except prisoners of war, who will be considered as in service until their arrival in a loyal State, with an allowance of time necessary for them to return to their respective places of enrolment. With officers and men of this class, commanding officers of regiments and companies will exercise great care in stating in the remarks, on the muster-out rolls, the dates and places of capture, thus: Prisoner of War. Captured at December 18-.

II..Officers and men absent from their commands, on detached service, sick in hospital, or paroled, will be furnished with transportation by the Quartermaster's Department, to the place where the regiment is to be mustered out, in time to be present at the said muster. If from sickness, or other proper cause, they cannot be sent in time, as above directed, they will be sent to the point indicated as soon thereafter as practicable. The transportation will be furnished upon the requisition of the commanding officer under whom the officer or soldier may be serving, or of the surgeon in charge of the hospital where he may be sick. The descriptive lists of the men will accompany them, and be turned over to the officer who may be charged with mustering out the force, by whom (after the data therefrom has been entered on the muster-out rolls) they shall be forwarded to the Adjutant General of the Army. III..The following extracts from the Mustering Regulations are published for the information and guidance of all concerned :

"Whenever volunteers or militia are mustered for final discharge, on the expiration of their term of service, a discharge will be furnished for each officer and soldier, whether present or absent.

"The blanks for these must be filled with great care and neatness, and signed, with official rank affixed, (at the left hand,) by the colonel or other regimental commander for the field and staff, by the captains or other company commanders for their respective companies, and by the mustering officer, and by the mustering officer returned to the said commanders for delivery to the individuals."

Form of Discharge.

TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.

[Coat of Arms.]

KNOW YE, That

a

of Captain

[ ]

regiment of

company

volunteers, who was enrolled on the

one thousand eight hundred and

to serve

years, or during the war, is hereby DISCHARGED from the service

day of

—, 186—, at

of the United States, this by reason (of being mustered out of service on the expiration of his term.) *No objection to his being re-enlisted is known to exist.

Said

was born in

in the State of

is

eyes

feet inches high, complexion,

hair, and by occupation, when enrolled, a ———.

U. S. Infantry and Mustering Officer.

"Where troops are mustered out of service final statements must not be given. The muster-out rolls take the place of final statements in such

I..The following is the organization of Regiments and Companies of the Volunteer Army of the United States under existing laws:

* This sentence will be erased should there be anything in the conduct or physical condition of the soldier rendering him unfit for duty in the army.