of assignment to stations, on the score of ill health, will be hereafter taken as confessions of inability to perform official duty on account of physical incapacity, and equivalent to tenders of resignations. The officers concerned will, in ordinary course, be mustered out of service hereupon as in cases of accepted resignations. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General, GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, August 1, 1863. No. 259. Veterinary Surgeons of Cavalry, under the act of March 3, 1863, will be selected by the Chief of the Cavalry Bureau, upon the nomination of the regimental commanders. These nominations will be founded upon the recommendation of a candidate by a regimental board of officers, to consist of the three officers present next in rank to the commander of the regiment. The names of candidates so recommended and nominated to the Chief of the Bureau of Cavalry will be submitted by him to the Secretary of War for appointment. A record of the appointments so made shall be kept in the Adjutant General's Office. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: The exigencies under which one hundred thousand militia for six months' service, from the States of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, were called out by the President's Proclamation of June 15, 1863, having passed, it is hereby ordered by the President that on and after the promulgation of this order no more enlistments under the said call shall be made. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: I..The following is the maximum amount of transportation to be allowed in the field: To Headquarters of an Army Corps.......2 wagons or 8 pack animals. The above will include transportation for all personal baggage, mess chests, cooking utensils, desks, paper, &c. The weight of officers' baggage in the field, specified in the Army Regulations, will be reduced so as to bring it within the foregoing schedule. All excess of transportation now with Army Corps, Divisions, Brigades, and Regiments, or Batteries, over the foregoing allowance, will be immediately turned in to the Quartermaster's Department, to be used in the trains. Commanding Officers of Corps, Divisions, &c., will immediately cause inspections to be made, and will be held responsible for the strict execution of this order. Commissary stores and forage will be transported by the trains. Where these are not convenient of access, and where troops act in detach. ments, the Quartermaster's Department will assign wagons or packed animals for that purpose; but the baggage of officers, or of troops, or camp equipages, will not be permitted to be carried in the wagons or on the packed animals so assigned. The assignment of transportation for ammunition will be made in proportion to the amount ordered to be carried. II..Cavalry horses are often broken down or injured by permitting the riders to carry extra baggage. Cavalry officers will be held responsible for the immediate removal of this evil. The knapsacks of infantry soldiers will also be frequently inspected, to see that they are properly packed, and that nothing is carried in them except what is directed by regulations and orders. III..In ordinary marches, where the troops can receive daily issues from the trains, they will be required to carry only two days' rations. But in the immediate vicinity of the enemy, and where the exigencies of the service render it necessary for troops to move without baggage or trains, the men may be required to carry with them from 8 to 12 days' rations, as follows: For Eight Days. Five days' beef or mutton, to be driven on the hoof or collected in the country passed over. Three days' cooked rations, in haversacks.... weight, 5 lbs. Five days' rations of bread and small-stores, in knapsacks For Twelve Days. Nine days' rations of meat, on the hoof. Three days' cooked rations, in haversacks.. .weight, 5 lbs Nine days' rations of biscuit and small-stores, in knap- A change of under-clothes, in knapsacks Total weight 23 66 The under-clothing should be packed in the knapsacks next to the back. One or two packed animals will march with each regiment, according to its size, to carry camp kettles, rice, beans, &c. Where circumstances will permit, a wagon may be assigned to a Brigade or Division for this purpose. Officers' servants are expected to carry rations for their officers and themselves. Those of mounted officers are expected to be mounted, and to be able to carry small forage for their animals. Long forage must be sought for in the country. By increasing the ordinary meat ration, and levying contributions of flour and meal in the country passed over, the bread and small rations carried as above by the soldier may be made to last from 20 to 25 days. In the proper season, the bread ration may be partially dispensed with by substituting green corn, which can be foraged in the fields. Movable columns in the field should be furnished with hand and horse mills for grinding the grain which they procure in the country. Within one week after the receipt of this order at their respective Headquarters, Inspectors of Armies and Army Corps will report directly to the Adjutant General of the Army every violation of this order, certifying in their reports that they have thoroughly inspected the several commands, and have reported therein every deviation from this order in regard to allowance of transportation. IV..The attention of all officers commanding forces in the field is called to the foregoing details, and they will adopt them as instruc tions in fitting out their command for movements which are to be made rapidly and without ordinary transportation. This order will be published at the head of every Regiment. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: By an act of the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, approved September 11, 1862, the right to vote for certain State officers is given to Volunteers or soldiers from that State in the military service of the United States, and provision is made for the appointment of one commissioner to each regiment of Iowa Volunteers for the purpose of carrying out this act. It is hereby ordered that all such duly accredited commissioners from Iowa be furnished with proper facilities for visiting the Volunteers from that State, and allowed access to them for the purpose indicated. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: E. D. 10WNSEND, GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, No. 276. ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, To secure and preserve discipline, provide against disaster from the. elements or attack by the enemy, the Senior Officer in the military service of the United States present with troops upon any transport will assume command, unless he finds, on going on board, a commander already designated by proper authority.. All troops on board the transport will, at the earliest moment after embarking, be inspected and organized into detachments or companies. The Senior Officer will assign officers to each detachment or company, |