[Second indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
May 31, 1865.

Respectfully forwarded to the Adjutant-General, approved.

GEO. G. MEADE,

Major-General, Commanding.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA, ARMY OF THE JAMES, Numbers 60.
Richmond, Va., May 20, 1865.

1. In obedience to General Orders, Numbers 86, from the War Department, dated May 9, 1865, Major General John Gibbon, commander of Twenty-fourth Army Corps, Major General George L. Hartsuff, Brigadier General J. Irvin Gregg, Brigadier General George H. Gordon, and Byt. Major General Nelson A. Miles, commanding independent districts, will order boards to examine and report the relative merits of all applicants in their respective commands below the grad de of colonel. Officers who by their service and qualifications are fit for the Regular Army will be specially designated, and the grade for which they are recommended specified. The object is to select officers who by their conduct in actual war are gualified for the position for which they are recommended.

2. The board called by Major-General Gibbon, will examine applicants belonging to the Twenty-fourth Army Corps, whether present with the corps or on detached duty, and also all applicants belonging to the commands of Brigadier-General Patrick and Mackenzie, brevet Brigadier-General Abbot, and Colonel Sumner.

3. A medical board will be instituted by each of the commanders above named to examine and report the officers, who may have been examined for relative merit, to ascertain if they are physically qualified to remain in the service.

4. For the examination of officers of the rank of colonel, and for the examination of all staff officers not belonging to the commissary, quartermaster, medical, U. S. Ordnance and U. S. Engineer Departments, and Signal Corps, a board will be convened at these headquarters on the 29th instant at 10 a. m., and sit without regard to hours. The board will consist of Brigadier General R. S. Mackenzie, Brigadier General N. M. Curtis, Byt. Brigadier General H. L. Abbot. Captain Charles B. Atchison, aide-de-camp, will act as recorder. The manner of conducting the examination, and the subjects upon which officers have been examined, should be reported by the various boards in order to enable the reviewing authority to understand the standard of merit taken as a basis for their recommendations.

By command of Major-General Ord:

ED. W. SMITH,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA, ARMY OF THE JAMES, Numbers 62.
Richmond, Va., May 20, 1865.

Colonel W. L. James is hereby announced as chief quartermaster of the Department of Virginia, he having been so assigned by orders from the War Department.

By command of Major-General Ord:

ED. W. SMITH,

Assistant Adjutant-General.