CITY POINT, VA., April 24, 1865.

Brigadier General D. C. McCALLUM,

Superintendent of U. S. Military Railroads, Washington, D. C.:

Troops having moved toward Danville, General Meade desires the road from Burkeville Junction put in running order. The main work is to rebuilt the bridge over the Staunton River. We can then obtain the rolling stock at Danville. If the bridge over the Appomattox, on the Danville road, is rebuilt and that at Farmville, on the South Side road, we should have plenty of 5-foot rolling stock to run between Danville and Richmond and Burkeville and Lynchburg. These repairs will be of great importance in the supply of troops and must be made by the Construction Corps, if the private companies do not make them. The lieutenant-general will not accede to their offers at present. I have therefore directed your agent here to have the bridge over the Staunton River rebuilt at once. It is some 600 feet long and and 30 high. It is also said that much of the material can be had in the vicinity. Please give the necessary orders for the rapid rebuilding of this bridge, and that across the Appomattox on the Richmond and Danville Railroad.

RUFUS INGALLS,

Brigadier-General and Chief Quartermaster.

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 73.
Washington, April 24, 1865.

The attention of all commanders of military division, department, district, detachments, and posts is drawn to the annexed opinion of the Attorney-General, which they will observed and regulate their action in accordance therewith:

ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

April 22, 1865.

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22nd of April. In it you ask me three questions, growing out of the capitulation made betwixt General Grant, of the U. S. Army, and General Lee, of the rebel army. You ask:

First. Whether rebel officers who once resided in the city of Washington and went to Virginia or elsewhere in the South and took service can return to the city under the stimulation of the capitulation and reside here as their homes.

Second. Whether persons who raised in Washington about the time the rebellion broke out, left the city and went to Richmond, where they have adhered to the rebel cause, entered into the civil service, or otherwise given it their support, comfort, and aid, can return to Washington since the capitulation of General Lee's army and the capture of Richmond and reside here under the terms of the capitulation.

Third. You state that, since the capitulation of General Lee's army, rebel officers have appeared in public in the loyal States wearing the rebel uniform, and you ask whether such conduct is not a fresh act of hostile on their part to the United States, subjecting them to be dealt with as avowed enemies of the Government.

Your letter is accompanied with a copy of the terms of capitulation entered into betwixt Generals Grant and Lee. It is as follows:

"Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate - one copy to be given to an officer [to be] designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate the officers to give their individual paroles not to take [up] arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery, and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officer appointed by me (General Grant) to received them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside."