quarters, 1862, requires the inspection of arms and roll-call at the beginning and close of every march, and that all absentees be reported. A more important order was never issued, yet it is very generally neglected throughout the army. The order requiring general officers to ride frequently along their columns, personally inspecting the order of march, is also too generally neglected. They remain for the most part at the head of their troops, rarely seeing to the straggling of their men. Attention is called to circular issued from this office, of the 5th of September, requiring inspectors to report hereafter to this office the manner in which different marches have been conducted and the measures adopted by their respective generals to correct the irregularities reported. If the inspectors fail to make the report, they will be brought before a court-martial for trial for disobedience of orders. The necessity for reform in the marching of troops requires that stringent measures be adopted.

I have had the honor to report a number of officers to the general commanding for violating the orders requiring all property captured on battle-fields to be turned over to the chiefs of the respective departments. Horses captured from the enemy are in most cases appropriated by the officers of the command capturing them. The chief quartermaster of the army is responsible for the transportation of the army, and should, under instructions of the general commanding, have the sole distribution of Government animals. Attention is respectfully called to instructions of the general commanding, have the sole distribution of Government animals. Attention is respectfully called to instructions to inspectors on this subject of the 28th of July. Orders regulating the settlement of damages done private property are frequently neglected. To insure a compliance hereafter and to ascertain the guilty party when there is neglect, inspectors are required (see circular September 5) to forward tri-monthly certificates with their reports, stating on whose property their commands have encamped the ten days preceding, the condition of the property when first occupied and at the time of breaking up camp, and whether damages inflicted have been settled according to the provisions of General Orders, Numbers 26. The inspectors of the army have not contributed as much to the repression of the evils and irregularities referred to above as the orders defining their duties contemplated. The chief reason for this delinquency is that inspectors have been too generally considered and used by their generals as members of their personal staff. They have not been encouraged in the discharge of their legitimate and prescribed duties, but have been in many cases ordered to do work of adjutants and aides-de-camp. The functions of the two offices are directly conflicting; indeed, their duties are in many important particulars incompatible. The duties of adjutant are at the desk and by the side, or bearing the orders of this general; those of inspector are supervisory in their nature, and keep him moving constantly along and through his command, seeing to the general execution, and reporting all violations of orders and regulations. He is thus taken from the presence of his commander, when as adjutant he is required at his side. To correct this evil I called the attention of inspectors, in circular from this office of the 6th of July, to the fact that they did not belong to the personal staff, but would be required to discharge the duties prescribed in orders from army headquarters of January, 1863. Notwithstanding these orders generals still use inspectors as adjutants-general. I would respectfully call the attention of the Department to the embarrassments resulting from this course. By this system inspectors are taken from the control of the chief inspector of the army and become subject to the orders alone of their generals. It practically relieves them from the functions as well