GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Numbers 12.
March 29, 1864.

I. The following extracts from the general orders governing the transfer of enlisted men from the military to the naval service of the United States are published for the information and guidance of this army:

Section 7 of the act approved February 24, 1864, published in General Orders, Numbers 91, War Department, March 4, 1864, provides as follows:

And any person now in the military service of the United States who shall furnish satisfactory proof that he is a mariner by vocation, or an able seaman, or ordinary seaman, may enlist into the Navy under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the President of the United States: Provided, That such enlistment shall not be for less than the unexpired term of his military service nor for less than one year. And the bounty money which any mariner, or seaman, or ordinary seaman, enlisting form the Army into the Navy, may have received from the United States, or from the State in which he enlsited in the Army, shall be deducted from the prize money to which he may become entitled during the time required to complete his military service: And provided further, That the whole number of such transfer enlistments shall not exceed 10,000.

The following regulations are prescribed by the President of the United States to carry this act into effect:

The Secretary of the Navy designates the whole number, not exceeding 12,000, which it is desirable to have at each of the several naval stations fixed upon by him, as follows, viz: At Cairo, Ill., 1,000; at Boston, 2,000; at New York, 5,000; at Philadelphia, 3,000; at Baltimore, 1,000.

To facilitate as much as possible the execution of the law above cited, it shall be the duty of every officer commanding a company, and of every officer commanding a recruiting rendezvous or depot, to forward all the applications made to him for transfer by seamen or ordinary seamen of hsi company or detachment, together with the proof that the applicants are mariners by vocation, or able or ordinary seamen, through the proper authorities to the headquarters of the army or department in which the company ins serving, or in which the rendezvous or depot may be situated; and he shall indicate in his report those of the applicants who have served longest at sean, and whether in the merchant or naval service. Not less than two years' sea service will constitute an ordinary seaman, and not less than four an able seaman; and, in the absence of other proof, the applicant may be required to make oath as to the service he has seen at sea.

Each commanding general of an army or department which has been required to furnish a quota for transfer to the Navy will at once designate one or more officers, as may be required, to examine the applications and determine from them, according to the qualification of the applicants and the number to be furnished, what men shall be transferred to the Navy.

As fast as selections are made, the men selected for transfer will be sent to the designated stations in the most expeditious manner, under suitable conduct, and the officer in charge of each detachment will be furnished with complete descriptive lists, containing statements of the pay, bounty, and clothing received and due, which will be turned over with the men to the commandant of the station.

Upon being accepted at the naval station, the men will be dropped from the rolls of their companies as transferred to the Navy by enlistment; but if rejected for physical disability or for not having seen the prescribed sea service they will be sent back to their companies, and if guilty of fraud or misrepresentations in their applications the expense of transportation will be charged against their pay.

Paragraph 2 of General Orders, Numbers 123, War Department, March 23, 1864, is as follows:

Every department and army commander will cause to be transferred as speedily as possible to the nearest naval station named in General Orders, Numbers 91, all enlisted men who desire to enlist in the Navy, and who fulfill the conditions required in General Orders, Numbers 91, without regard to the restriction in the said orders as to reduction of regiments and companies below the minimum organization, which restriction is removed.

II. For the purpose of more fully and expeditiously carrying into