SERIES III.-VOL. V.

CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, REPORTS, AND RETURNS OF THE UNION AUTHORITIES FROM MAY 1, 1865, TO THE END.*

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 79.
Washington, May 1, 1865.

FOR REDUCING THE NUMBER OF GENERAL, FIELD, AND STAFF OFFICERS.

It is ordered by the President that resignations of general, field, and staff officers will be received until the 15th of this month, at which date the Adjutant-General is directed to commence mustering honorably out of service all general, field, and staff officers who are unemployed, or whose service is no longer needed.

By order of the President of the United States:

W. A. NICHOLS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, May 1, 1865.

(For the Honorable Secretary of War.)

OUTLINE OF METHOD FOR THE MUSTER OUT AND DISCHARGE FROM SERVICE OF THE VOLUNTEER ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

I. Army corps, or at least the division thereof, to be kept intact and ordered to convenient points, depending up;n the armies to which they belong--say, Old Point Comfort, Washington, Cumberland, Nashville, Saint Louis, and such other places as may be designated.

On arrival at said rendezvous a critical inspection of the regimental and company records to be made and the muster-out rolls prepared under the direction of the assistant commissaries of musters for divisions, superintended by the corps commissaries; corps commanders to see that the work is pushed with energy and executed promptly, using to this end division and brigade commanders to superintend it, and their respective staff officers to aid the mustering officers in col-

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*For all documents relating to the organization of troops on the Pacific Coast, &c., see Series I, Vol. L.

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1 R R-SERIES III, VOL V