erty of the United States, and will be required for future reference in the settlement of claims against the Government and for other official purposes. Whenever posts, districts, geographical departments and divisions, and other commands have been or shall hereafter be discontinued, all such records, if not required for use at the department headquarters in which the commands were included, will be immediately forwarded by express to this office.

II. All persons who are not now, but who many have been, in the military service of the United States, and who have such records in their possession, are expected to forward them without delay to this office, where the expense of transportation will be paid.

III. Officers who come in command of places captured from the enemy will collect and forward to this office any papers left behind by the rebels which may be of public use or interest.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

CIRCULAR
WAR DEPT., ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, No. 15.
Washington, April 7, 1865.

I. With a view to fix the responsibility of receiving into service recruits, substitutes, drafted men, &c., who, at the time of entry into service, are incapable of performing the duties of a soldier, on the proper mustering and recruiting officers and examining surgeons, and to prevent the improper discharge of persons on the ground of disability contracted before enty into service, the Secretary of War directs that all enlisted men who appear to be fit subjects for discharge, on account of disability existing at the time of entry into service, be not discharged until they shall have been sent to such U. S. general hospitals as the Surgeon-General may designate for the reception of this class of patients, where, after thorough treatment and observation, they will be disposed of on the recommendation of boards, to be designated by the Surgeon-General for that purpose.

II. The Secretary of War also directs that the chief medical officer under the Provost-Marshal-General shall have an opportunity to make such observation and examination of this class of patients, together with the surgeons who examined them on their entry into service, as may be necessary to inculpate or exculpate the mustering and recruiting officers and examining surgeons.

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, April 7, 1865.

Governor OGLESBY,

Springfield, Ill.:

Reduction cannot be made on the quota of the First District for the present draft. Any proper credit that may be established will be credited on future drafts.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.