GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, No. 8.
Richmond, February 23, 1865.

I. Generals of reserves will immediately place upon active duty every man belonging to that class who is not specially detailed, or has not been turned over to generals commanding armies, departments, or districts. They will organize them into convenient bodies, and will employ them vigorously in arresting and returning to the Army all deserters and absentees.

II. This service will, for the present, constitute the primary duty of officers of the reserve forces, and they will enter actively upon it.

III. Generals of reserves will visit and inspect the localities in which this force is most needed, and can be most beneficiially employed, and will give their personal attention to the organization and operations of their troops in carrying out these orders. They will report twice a month to the Adjutant and Inspector General the number of men arrested and sent by them to the Army.

IV. Generals commanding armies will return to the generals of reserves for this duty all the reserve forces in active service that are not indispensably necessary in the field.

V. It is not intended that these orders shall affect the reserves employed in guarding railroad bridges.

By order:

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

RICHMOND, VA., February 24, 1865.

Brigadier Gen. I. M. ST. JOHN:

GENERAL: As a means of increasing the supply of breadstuffs for the use of the Government, I beg leave to offer for your consideration the following observations derived in the course of my official duties, and some suggestions that have presented themselves therewith:

First. That any call upon the people for voluntary contributions produces, in fact, nothing. The truly patriotic have already delivered, or are doing so as rapidly as possible, all their surplus. Those who are so only in appearance by a small loan or proffered sale, which is magnified to its greatest extent, aiim to cover and protect a much larger quantity, while those who are not disposed to aid the Government are induced by this rt themselves to their utmost to conceal and convey off secretly what might otherwise be obtained.

Second. That the patriotism of the peopole is not exhausted, and that they will cheerfully submit to anything that they can be assured is necessary and uniform. To this latter condition even more importance is attached than to the other. I feel assured that the testimony of every officer engaged in the collection of supplies will be found to sustain me in this opinion, and that it will meet the assent of every producer and farmer. The neglect of this rule has been a greater cause of dissatisfaction and complaint than all the other acts of the Government combined.

Third. That throughout Virginia the rations of meal for the negroes is now, by general allowance, one and a half pecks of meal per week - say, eighteen pounds - or two and four-seventh pounds per day, nearly three times what is given to the Army; that in addition to this they have their vegetables, milk, chickens, eggs, & c.