and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The commanding general should inform himself of their merits, and select such as are able for service and most competent to command. In communicating his recommendations to the Department, the former command, together with the date and grade of former commissions, will be stated.

IV. The commanding general of the department or army, who shall reorganize his army under this act, will cause a list to be prepared of all the officers of his army or department who are not designated for command, except those in the hands of the enemy, and publish the same in orders. Copies of said orders will be promptly forwarded to the pector General, who will cause the names of all such officers to be dropped from the rolls of the Army, to take effect from the date of the publication of the order at the headquarters of the department or army. The names will also be announced in general orders from this office.

V. Within sixty days from the publication of the names of said officers at the headquarters of the army or department, each officer will select and join a company in some branch of the service east of the Mississippi River, if he resides and is in service on this side of said river, or be subject to conscription wherever he may be found. Such officers may, however, form themselves into new organizations, which shall be officered from among themselves by appointment of the President. The organization will be conducted under the direction of the general commanding, who is required to afford reasonable facilities.

VI. The various chiefs of bureaus will furnish to the Secretary of War a list of all the officers in their respective departments who become supernumeraries under the eight section of the act aforesaid, in order that their names be dropped from the rolls under the provisions of the same.

VII. The office of ensign of battalions and regiments has been abolished by this act. Their names will be dropped from the rolls from the date of this order. Each ensign will be permitted to select the company to which he desires to attach himself, under the conditions contained in paragraph V.

VIII. The commanding general is authorized under the ninth section of this act to designate officers to supply vacancies that may occur in any regiments, battalion, or company organization by the capture of the officer in command. In all such cases the commanding general will promptly communicate to the Department the name of the officer so designated.

IX. The colors of all battalions and regiments which are consolidated, except those selected for the new organizations, will be forwarded to the Adjutant and Inspectoa statement of the battle in which the battalion or regiment to which they belong may have participated.

By order:

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

RICHMOND, VA., March 25, 1865.

Colonel JOHN R. BAYLOR:

SIR: I have the honor to inform you that you have been appointed a colonel in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, with