[Inclosure No. 1.]

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Richmond, Va., March 24, 1865.

General COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General:

GENERAL: I have had a conference to-day with the President in reference to the general staff. It was desired to confer with you, but you happened to be absent. The inclosed memorandum in the hand-writing of the President is, so far as it goes, the result of the conference. Please classify the officers of the Adjutant and Inspector General's Department according to their respective grades and in the order of rank, with a view to selections for the different commands, and promotions founded upon capacity and services.

The principles laid down the memorandum do not exclude the idea of promotion upon the recommendations of general officers in proper cases. Hence, if you see no objection, it may be well for you to recommend the promotion of the officers named in the inclosed communication of General R. E. Lee, upon the ground of merit and services, although there may be available officers of adequate rank unassigned.

Please issue a circular to the chiefs of the several staff departments, embracing the points in this and the memorandum of the President, and applying them to their several corps.

Please confer with me personally so soon as this work is completed.

The papers in relation to General Buckner's staff are inclosed for reconsideration.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE,

Secretary of War.

[Inclosure No. 2.]

MEMORANDUM.

The act of June 4, 1864, establishes the general staff as a corps and provides for promotions or selections, and renders the post or duty of a staff officer purely a matter of assignment. It allows a certain grade of staff officers to correspond with the grade of the general with whom they are serving, and a certain number of staff officers, but authorizes the increase or reduction of the number.

The act of March 11, 1865, repeals certain provisions as to both grade and number.

To carry out the first and main provision, promotions cannot be made to depend upon the officer with whom a staff officer is serving by assignment. The selections for promotion must be made in the usual mode of determining merit. The number of colonels, for instance, in the Adjutant-General's Department will be made equal to the number of appropriate places for the assignment of adjutants-general with the rank of colonel. From these, generals entitled to an adjutant-general of that grade may select for his staff. if any general prefers an adjutant-general who has a lower grade, he should, as a general rule, be indulged in that preference. No promotion, however, will be derivate from his selection. So of other departments of the general staff.