Hereafter all ordnance officers will be help responsible by the chief of ordnance of the department for the strict and prompt execution of all orders and instructions connected with their department that may emanate from him; they will report to him, upon the 1st of each month, the stores on hand for which they may be accountable, and their condition; also all expenditures made by them during the preceding month. At the same time,requisitions will be made by them for all stores required.

All ordnance officers are enjoined to report anything falling under their notice, the knowledge of which might be of service to the ordnance department, as suggestions upon the improvement or better preservation of ordnance stores, &c.

Any ordnance officer hereafter appointed in this department will report immediately by letter to the chief of ordnance of the department.

II. A military tax of 5 per cent, is hereby levied on the cargoes of all trading vessels entering this department, except at ports where a like tax is levied according to law by the special agent of the U. S. Treasury Department.

Cargoes for regimental sutlers, which are to be sold only within the lines of their respective regimental camps, will be exempted from this tax.

The provost-marshal-general in charged with the execution of this order.

By command of Major General Q. A. Gillmore:

ED. W. SMITH,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
In the Field, Folly Island, S. C., October 15, 1863.

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief, Washington:

GENERAL: I have the honor to request that the detachment of the Eighteenth Army Corps now serving in this department be transferred to the Tenth Army Corps.

A part of the detachment has been in this department since February last, and the regiments are now more meanly identified with this command than with the one to which they belong.

The period for which these troops are likely to continue as part of this command seems to be quite indefinite, and for all the purposes of administration their consolidation with the corps organization of this department is desirable.

The Tenth Corps has lost several of its strongest regiments by transfer to the Department of the Gulf, and has been much reduced in the late campaign.

The addition of the force above named would scarcely do more than restore it to its original footing.

I inclose a list of the regiments constituting the force referred to, showing their aggregate strength.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Q. A. GILLMORE,

Major-General, Commanding.