WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, December 26, 1864.

Governor MORTON,

Indianapolis, Ind.:

No authority has been given for raising new regiments. The volunteers and drafted men will be placed in old regiments to fill them up, and until they are filled up no new officers will be mustered in. The regulations of this Department, adopted by the order of the President upon the concurring judgment of commanders in the field, must prescribe the regulations for enlistment.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

INDIANAPOLIS, IND., December 26, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON:

Your dispatch saying that no authority had been given to raise new regiments, that all volunteers and drafted men were to be placed in old regiments until they are filled up, has been received. On the 24th instant I issued an order providing for raising eleven new regiments in this State. The authority upon which I acted was the following dispatch:

WASHINGTON, December 14.

Governor MORTON:

The troops for the First (Hancock's) Corps will be raised in accordance with the orders and regulations heretofore published on that subject. To make changes for individual cases would seriously prejudice the service. The Department will gladly accept for general service any number of regiments of volunteers you may be disposed to raise in accordance with the general regulations, placing them in such other corps as will best promote the service.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

Before issuing my order it, together with your dispatch, was shown to General Pitcher, the general mustering and recruiting officer for this State, upon which he promised his cordial co- operation in the enterprise.

O. P. MORTON,

Governor.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, December 26, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:

DEAR SIR: I herewith inclose application of the adjutant-general of Missouri for the recruitment of old regiments of cavalry of this State from the Missouri State Militia.*

I very much desire that the soldiers composing the Missouri State Militia may be kept in the service either in this way or by some other feasible plan. They are young men, many of them cannot return to their homes, and to let them loose upon the State would, I fear, tend to increase our troubles. They are good soldiers, but poorly officered.

To replace any regiments of cavalry sent here I could send out of the State three other regiments. All the cavalry, however, in the State is poorly mounted.

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*See December 24, p. 1011.

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