poor condition, and they ought to be broken up and the good material put into some other regiments, whilst the worthless is discharged as a burden to the service. On the next Page is a copy of the order* which calls one of them into existence, and it has been stated to me that the good materials to be transferred by General Thomas, and the unserviceable is to be formed into the "invalid corps. " I will remark that it has been unofficially stated to me, but whether with foundation in fact or not I am unable to say, that it is expected that Captain Lorenzo Thomas, Jr., First U. S. Artillery, is to be colonel of it. Who is to be entitled to the credit of originating the idea of collecting broken- down and unserviceable negroes into a body and calling it an "invalid corps" I do not know; but it appears to me that the Secretary of War could not have understood the character of the intended organization. Captain Thomas stated to me that the original intention had been partly frustrated by the officers of the regiment fraudulently inducing many of their worthless privates to desert and filling their places by able- bodied men under the same name, and that it is the intention of General Thomas to transfer these able- bodied men to other regiments and recruit again from "invalids. " The officers report that they have new many men who are unfit for service. If the above idea is carried out no real service need by expected from the organization. They have been used as plantation guards, five companies at a point eight miles from here, and four companies at another point three miles from here. The detachments are in bad condition and indifferently officered. I have ordered them both to be withdrawn, as will be seen by the accompanying copy of a letter+ of instructions to Brigadier- General Brayman.

When I visited the plantation at which the detachment of four companies was stationed, eight miles from here, I was informed by Captain Howell, then temporarily in command, that it was leased and occupied by a Mr. Barnet, and that the mules which worked it belonged to the United States and were taken from the "Home Plantation, " so called; also that he as seen farming implements, harness, &c., marked "Home Plantation" in use there, and that the rations fed to the hands are the same, including hard bread, as are furnished by the Government to the hands of the "Home Plantation," which was also under the superintendence of a Mr. Barnet. I do not know that this is a matter of interest in military circles, but as the farms are not distant form each other I think proper to mention it as one of the items of public information involving the action of officials, which are stirred to the surface by constant talk in the community here in regard to the general habit of sharp practice carried on in this valley at the expense of our bleeding and exhausted Government and to the defamation of the characters of such civil and military officers as have a right to claim exemption from the general suspicion of corruption. At the risk of being considered meddlesome in a matter over which I have not an exclusive charge, by special instruction, and of differing in opinion with a soldier much older and more experienced than I am, I repeat my opinion that the Sixty- THIRD and Sixty- fourth U. S. Infantry (Colored), commonly known here as the "Invalids," should be broken up by the discharge of all officers who are unsuitable and all men not able- bodied, and that the remainder be transferred to fill up other good regiments. As I have mentioned a plantation above, which is leased to the son of a civil officer here, I deem it my duty also to refer to another, one of the best in the country, which, being occupied by a son

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*See inclosure Numbers 1, p. 193.

+See inclosure Numbers 4, p. 194.

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