cloth on the left arm. In no case, as long as firing continues, should an armed soldier abandon his comrades in battle to attend the wounded. (See paragraph 734, Army Regulations.)

II. Hospital are too far to the rear of their corps and divisions; they should be up as close as possible and covered by the shape of ground and not by distance. The surgeons in charge are responsible that slight wounds or shirking be not the cause of detaining armed men about their hospitals. Each attendant should have at all times about his person the written authority which justifies his presence at the hospital or in passing to and from the command to which the hospital belongs.

III. Shirking, skulking, and straggling in time of danger are such high, detestable crimes that the general commanding would hardly presume them possible were it not for his own observation and the report that at this moment soldiers are found loafing in the cabins to the rear as far back as Kingston. The only proper fate of such miscreants is that they be shot as common enemies to their profession and country, and all officers and patrols sent to arrest them will shoot them without mercy on the slightest impudence or resistance. By thus wandering to the rear they desert their fellows, who expose themselves in battle in the full faith that all on the rolls are present; and they expose themselves to capture and exchange as good soldiers, to which they have no title. It is hereby made the duty of every officer who finds such skulkers to deliver them to any provost guard, regardless of corps, to be employed in menial or hard work, such as repairing roads, digging drains, sinks, &c. Officers, if found skulking, will be subjected to the same penalties as enlisted men, viz, instant death or the harshest labor and treatment. Absentees not accounted for should always be mustered as deserters, to deprive them of the pay and bounties reserved for honest soldiers.

IV. All will be styled skulkers who are found to the rear, absent from their proper commands without written authority of their proper commander. Captains cannot give orders or passes beyond their regimental limits; colonels, beyond brigade limits; brigadiers beyond division limits, &c. The commanding generals of the three departments alone can order officers or detachments with or without wagons back to Kingston or other general depots.

V. If unarmed soldiers are found on horses or mules at a distance from their proper commands or trains any cavalry escort or patrol will make prisoners of the men and appropriate the horses and mules to the use of the cavalry. Orderlies to general officers on duty will be easily recognized by bearing official orders or receipts for the same, but each general officer shall provide his orderlies with an official detail, to be carried with him. Horses and mules sent for forage or to graze should be sent by detachments with arms and military organization, when they will always be respected.

VI. Brigade and regimental commanders are the proper officers to keep their officers and men at their places. The commanding general will, by his inspectors or in person, give this matter full attention, and when the time comes for reports on which to base claims for reward and promotions no officer having a loose, straggling command need expect any favor.

VII. The commanding generals of the three armies will make this order public, and at once organize guards and patrols to carry it into full effect.

By order of Major General W. T. Sherman:

L. M. DAYTON,

Aide-de-Camp.