by the officers of the Bureau. Skilled men for mining, smelting, &c., are absolutely necessary. Those who remain at work can be organized as local troops, and can be used when they cannot work.

By order of General Lee:

C. MARSHALL,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, No. 73.
Richmond, March 28, 1865.

X. The organization known as the Foreign Battalion will be hereafter designated the Eighth Confederate Battalion Infantry.

* * * * *

By command of the Secretary of War:

JNO. WITHERS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, No. 17.
Richmond, Va., March 29, 1865.

I. The following act of Congress, abolishing the Bureau of Conscription, is published, as amended by the subsequent act of March 17, 1865, for the information of general officers commanding reserves in the several States, and of all officers and others now upon conscript service under the orders of the late Bureau of Conscription:

AN ACT to regulate the business of conscription.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, that the general officers commanding the reserves in each State shall be charged with the duty of directing and controlling the enforcement of the laws relating to conscription, exemption, and details therein; that the said officers shall report to the Secretary of War, through the Adjutant and Inspector General, who shall assign an assistant adjutant-general in his office to the special duty of receiving and arranging all returns, and discharging such other duties as may be necessary in the enforcement of the conscription acts.

SEC. 2. That the applications for exemption and detail, except as hereinafter provided, shall be decided by the general officers having charge of the business of conscription in the several States. Appeals may be taken from their decisions to the Secretary of War, but during the pendency of such appeals the appellants shall be liable to military service.

SEC. 3. That there shall be assigned from the Invalid Corps, or from officers certified by the proper medical boards to be unfit for active service in the field, a sufficient number of enrolling officers, who shall report to and be under the immediate direction and control of the general officers conducting the business of conscription in the several States.

SEC. 4. That all conscripts shall be examined by the medical boards of the Army after joining the commands in the field to which they may be respectively assigned; and every discharge granted by an Army medical board shall be final, and shall relieve the party from all military service in the future, when the disability is permanent and the cause of it is set forth in the certificate of discharge.

SEC. 5. a That if any conscript shall furnish to the enrolling officer of his county a certificate, under oath, from a respectable physician or from any Army surgeon, that he is unable to travel to the command to which he may be assigned, without serious prejudice to his health, or that he is seriously maimed or manifestly unfit

a Amendatory. Approved March 17, 1865.