made in your letter of the 17th instant touching the concentration of the Maryland troops at one or more central points.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT., GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Numbers 31. Washington, March 27, 1862.

I. The following act of Congress is published for the information of all concerned:

AN ACT to secure to the officers and men actually employed in the Western Department, or Department of Missouri, their pay, bounty, and pension.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representation of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of War be and he is hereby, authorized and required to allow an pay to the officers, non-commissioned employed in the military service of the United States whether mustered into actual service or not, where their services were accepted and actually employed by the generals who have been in command of the Department of the West, or the Department of the Missouri, the pay and bony as in cases of regular enlistment.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the officers, non- commissioned officers, musicians, and privates so employed, who may have been wounded or incapacitate for service, shall be entitled to and receive the pension allowed for such disability: Provided, That the length and character of their enlistment and service be such as to entitle them, under existing laws, to such pension.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the heirs of those killed in battle, or of these who may have died from wounds received while so in service, shall be entitled to receive the bounty and pay to which they would have been entitled had they been regularly mustered into service: Provided, That the bounty and pay referred to in this act shall not be payable unless their term of enlistment and service be of such duration as to entitle them to receive the same, according to existing laws.

Approved March 25, 1865, 1862.

* * * *

By order of the Secretary of War:

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

[MARCH 27, 1862.-For Stanton to Ellet, directing measures to provide steam rams for defense against iron-clad vessels on the Western waters, see Series I, Vol. X, Part II, po. 69.]

NEW ALABANY, March 27, 1862.

Owing to the non-existence of a board of trade in this city, I have taken the responsibility of calling together a number of our most prominent citizens to act upon your dispatch, enjoining upon them entire