II. The following extract from Special Orders, Numbers 215, from the Headquarters of the Army, is published for general information, and commanders of military posts within the limits of this command are authorized to administer the oath of allegiance to persons coming within the provisions of the raider, and to give them passes to return to their homes. The fact that the oath has been administered, and the date of administering it, will be indorsed on the pass. A register of the persons availing themselves of this order will be kept, and a copy of it transmitted to the provost-marshal-general at division headquarters:

Paroled officers and men of the late rebel armies, whose homes were, at the date of their joining their armies, in States that have never been in rebellion, and who are not excepted from the benefits of the President's amnesty proclamation, will, upon taking the oath of allegiance, be permitted to return to their former homes in those States.

III. The authority of military commanders in relation to the status of persons residing within the insurrectionary districts is determined and controlled by the proclamations of the President of December 8, 1863, and March 26, 1864, and the Executive order of April 29, 1865, and the provisions of these proclamation and this order cannot be extended, restrained, or otherwise modified by any subordinate authority. Any orders that may have been issued within the limits of this command, conflicting with the letter and spirit of these proclamations and this order, are revoked, and the attention of all commanders is specially called to the requirements of War Department General Orders, Numbers 242, of August 8, 1864.

By order of Major General E. R. S. Canby:

C. H. DYER,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

CIRCULAR.
HDQRS. MIL. DIV. OF WEST MISSISSIPPI, Numbers 6.
New Orleans, La., May 22, 1865.

Under authority from the War Department, dated May 9, 1865, it is hereby ordered that all commissioned officers and enlisted men serving within the limits of this command whose term of service will expire prior to May 31, 1865, be at once mustered out and discharged the service. Commanding officers of regiments, batteries, and independent companies will report the names of those in their commands who come under the provisions of this circular to the mustering officer of the division or district in which they may be serving for discharge.

By order of Major General E. R. S. Canby:

C. H. DYER,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

SOUTHWEST PASS, May 22, 1865.

Major General N. P. BANKS:

I am just from Galveston. Nothing has been seen or heard of the ram on the coast of Texas.

Respectfully,

G. F. EMMONS,

Captain U. S. Ship Lackawanna.