WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., August 17, 1864.

THOMAS WEBSTER, Esq.,

Chairman Supervisory Committee,

1210 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa.:

SIR: I am directed by the Secretary of War to inform you that you are hereby authorized to raise one regiment of infantry, to be composed of colored men, to be mustered into the service of the United States for three years or during the war. The regiment will be known and designated as the One hundred and twenty- seventh U. S. Colored Troops.

The instructions heretofore given in regard to organization, musters, &c., will govern in this case.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, &c.,

LEG. BENEDICT,

Assistant Adjutant-General of Volunteers.

CIRCULAR
WAR DEPT., ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 65.
Washington, August 18, 1864.

The Secretary of War directs that enlisted men now in the Veteran Reserve Corps, who, upon examination, are found to be unfit for duty in the First Battalion, may be discharged if they so elect, and that men who have served two years (continuously) in the Army or Marine Corps of the United States, and have been honorably discharged by reason of expiration of term of service, or otherwise, and are thus by law exempt from draft, may be enlisted in the First Battalion of the Veteran Reserve Corps (for three years), without bounty from the United States.

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,
New York, City, August 18, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: The authority given me by General Fry's letter, of the 8th instant, to raise a regiment for duty here until further orders will prove entirely inadequate to the purpose. Unless I am authorized to raise a regiment to serve in this city and harbor, and not elsewhere, I cannot get the men. I desire to refer to my letter of the 22nd of July. Although there are no outward evidences of an intention to create disturbances when the approaching draft takes place, it is well known that there is a wide-spread feeling of hostility to the measures of the Government which is liable on the slightest pretext to break out into open violence. Neither the State nor the city authorities can be counted on for any aid in enforcing the draft; and while I impute no such designs to them, there are men in constant communication with them who, I am satisfied, desire nothing so much as a collision between the State and General governments and an insurrection in the North in aid of the Southern rebellion. I have no apprehension for the interior if tranquillity can be maintained in this

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