GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Numbers 24.
May 16, 1865.

The following circular from the War Department is published to this army for the information and guidance of all concerned:

CIRCULAR.] WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, May 15, 1865.

COMMANDING GENERAL ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

Washington, D. C.:

The Secretary of War directs that you call the attention of all regimental and company commanders of your command to the importance of having their regimental and company records so completed and arranged that at any time the muster-out rolls of their respective commands can be prepared without delay.

Commissaries of musters and their assistants should give particular attention to the foregoing.

THOMAS M. VINCENT,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

By command of Major-General Meade:

GEO. D. RUGGLES,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS SUB-DISTRICT, DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA, SOUTH OF APPOMATTOX,
Petersburg, Va., May 16, 1865.

Major J. M. HOWARD,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

MAJOR: I have the honor to report that, in accordance with orders from Major-General Hartsfuff, I made a tour of inspection through the counties of my sub-district, and find that in the greater part of the country there is sufficient seed in the ground to produce food for the white people and able-bodied laborers through the winter. I do not think there is enough to feed non-working freedmen. Along the lines of march of the troops, and in neighborhoods where they have been long encamped, there is great destitution, and little can be done toward cultivating such lands, unless the owners are assisted by the loan, not only of seed and farming implements, but also of horses and mules with harness. I sent yesterday to the Court-House of each county about 200 men under charge of an officer, carefully selected by myself. I shall institute at each Court-House a Government farm and employ thereon as many freedmen as possible. All freedmen unable to work and all women and children, whose former owners send them from their plantations, will be gathered together at the Court-Houses, and suitable barracks will be provided for them. I shall take measures at once to make the labor of these sustain themselves as far as possible. The infantry stationed the Court-Houses will only be sufficient to protect the most exposed farms from depredators. It is necessary that a mounted force should be provided to patrol the country, to enforce law and order and arrest marauders. To enable me to render prompt and efficient assistance to the citizens whose farms have been overrun, and to afford protection to freemen, I shall need the following implements and supplies: Five hundred plows, 1,000 hoes, 500 sets one-horse harness, 500 spades, 500 axes, 100 picks, 50 wagons with mules and harness complete, 6 sets carpenters' tools complete, 2,000 shelter-tents (send condemned tents), 200 camp kettles (lot condemned), 200 mess pans (lot condemned), 50 buckets, 300 barrels of potatoes, 300 bushels of beans, 300 bushels of pease, 1 saw-mill, 1 small grist-mill, 3 travel-