manders will instruct the regimental commanders to use their utmost efforts to prevent any stragglers from dropping to the rear of their regiments.

By order of Brigadier General T. W. Sweeny:

R. K. RANDOLPH.

Lieutenant and Acting Aide-de-Camp

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. General 'S OFFICE.

Numbers 103.
Washington, April 27, 1863.

The President directs that the troops in Kentucky, * not belonging to the Ninth Army Corps, be organized into the Twenty-third Army Corps, to be commanded by Major General G. L. Hartsuff.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, April 27, 1863

Major General AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE.

Commanding Department of the Ohio, Cincinnati:

In reply to your telegram of the 26th I would repeat the assurances frequently made that the Department has every disposition to gratify you in any particular that you may deem important to the success of your operations. I will see the Quartermaster-General and Surgeon-General, and direct them to waive any objections they may have to your selections. The objection, I apprehend, is more to the form of your proceeding than to any actual change. It is not admissible by the rules and regulations of the service for department commanders to make such assignments as you propose to make and they are only to be made by the chiefs of the respective bureaus; but if you were to designate to the chiefs of bureaus those whom you desired to fill the posts of chiefs of your staff, it is not likely that any objection would be made, and I would suggest to you the propriety of your conforming to the rules of the service in that particular. In respect to Captain [John H.] Dickerson, complaints have been made to this Department of such a nature that I have deemed it necessary to relieve him from duty, in order that the operations at Cincinnati may undergo a thorough investigation. This, I think, had better be done before he is assigned to duty with you. It is of importance that no one should occupy that responsible position in your army against whom there is any reasonable ground of complaint so that if you can make a different selection, even temporarily, it would be expedient to do so.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS,
Cincinnati, April 27, 1863.

Honorable E. M. STANTON:

Your dispatch received. I see that my course in assigning staff officers without consulting the heads of the departments was improper, and feel sure that my recommendations would have been respected.

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*See Halleck to Burnside, June 8, 1863, p. 400.

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