contemplated that the propriety of putting it in force would be referred to a board of officers nor can the opinion of any such board be admitted as a sufficient reason for failing to comply with the Secretary's order. I presume the proceedings are intended to be considered only as suggestions. The Regulations of the Army provide for but one mode of disposing of surplus rations and that is by the sale of those saved by companies to the Commissary Department. So far as you have regularly organized companies this regulation applies, but for the large body of fragment of companies at Benton Barracks there is no authority for disposing of one pound of saved rations except as authorized by my letter of the 13th ultimo. The ration is much larger than can be consumed by the men, and if there is no responsible company commander to take charge of and dispose of the surplus it must either be sold by unauthorized persons in violation of regulations or converted into a camp fund according to my instructions, or it must remain in the Subsistence Department. The object is to convert a large saying of rations into a fund which may be used for the benefit of the troops and to remove the temptation it offers to irresponsible persons to convert it into a source of personal profit. If the sick are well provided for in every way you can make no use of a fund to promote the general welfare of the camp or of individuals. Please report your own views on the subject and inform me what disposition is made of the surplus rations which unavoidably accumulate in every command. At a camp of paroled troops near this city it is found that rations for two days are ample to last three days and the excess of one day's rations remains in the Subsistence Department.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, No. 91.
Cincinnati, Ohio, June 4, 1863.

I. By direction of the President of the United States the order suppressing the publication of the Chicago Times is hereby revoked.

II. The circulation of the New York World in this department having been suppressed for the same reasons that caused the suppression of the publication of the Chicago Times that portion of the general order relating to said newspaper is hereby revoked and it will be allowed to resume its circulation.

By command of Major-General Burnside:

W. P. ANDERSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

INDIANAPOLIS, June 4, 1863.

General M. C. MEIGS:

Additional hospital accommodations are required for rebel prisoners at Camp Morton. It can be done economically by a temporary extension of the present hospital building to the extent absolutely necessary for the emergency. Prisoners all in camp.

JAMES A. EKIN,

Quartermaster.