Today in History:

249 Series I Volume XXX-IV Serial 53 - Chickamauga Part IV

Page 249 Chapter XLII. CORRESPONDENCE,ETC.-UNION.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized to cause to be enlisted for each cook two under-cooks of African descent, who shall receive, for their full compensation, ten dollars per month and one ration per day; three dollars of said monthly pay may be in clothing.

The Quartermaster-General has directed that officers of the Quartermaster's Department shall not pay negroes employed as cooks, on the ground that their enlistment has now been authorized by Congress, and that their pay is not therefore a proper charge against the appropriations for the Quartermaster's Department.

It is therefore ordered that the negroes employed as company cooks under General Orders, Numbers 6, from these headquarters, shall, where they have been properly reported on the quartermaster's returns, be paid from the date of their employment, to include the 2nd of March, 1863, by the proper disbursing quartermaster.

The number allowed by the sections of the law above quoted will be at once mustered into the service, to date from the 3rd of March, 1863, or from such subsequent date as their services may have commenced. The men so mustered in will be taken up on the muster-rolls of the companies to which they are attached,and will draw their pay from the Pay Department. Attention is called to the following extract from General Orders, Numbers 323, current series, War Department:

For a regular company the two under-cooks will be enlisted; for a volunteer company they will be mustered into the service as in cases of other soldiers. In each case a remark will be made on their enlistment papers showing that they are under-cooks of African descent. Their names will be borne on the company muster-rolls at the foot of the list of privates. They will be paid, and their accounts will be kept, like other enlisted men. They will also be discharged int he same manner as other soldiers.

II. So much of General Orders, Numbers 172, current series, from these headquarters, as directs that negroes employed as servants of company officers shall be reported and paid by the Quartermaster's Department,and that the officers employing them shall drop the charge for servants from their pay accounts, is revoked, as its practical working involves an illegal transfer of funds. The general commanding trusts, however, that the ends which that order was designed to accomplish, viz, to secure to negroes so employed just compensation for their services, will not be defeated. Any officer who takes advantage of the ignorance and defenseless condition of this class of people to defraud them of their just earnings will be severely dealt with.

By command of Major-General Rosecrans:

C. GODDARD,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE CUMBERLAND,


No. 231. Chattanooga, Tenn., October 10, 1863.

The following changes in the staff of the major-general commanding are published for the information of the army:

I. Brig. General J. A. Garfield has been chosen by his fellow-citizens to represent them in the councils of the nation. His high intelligence, spotless integrity, business capacity, and thorough acquaintance with the wants of the army, will render his services, if possible,


Page 249 Chapter XLII. CORRESPONDENCE,ETC.-UNION.