authorities to disturb the organization of militia or volunteer regiments in the national service, or to interfere in any way with the control which the President under national Constitution and laws shall exercise over them.

By order of the Secretary of War:

C. P. BUCKINGHAM,

Brigadier-General and Assistant Adjutant-General.

SAINT PAUL, June 18, 1862.

Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON:

Have no troops that can leave immediately.

ALEX. RAMSEY,

Governor of Minnesota.

HARRISBURG, June 18, 1862.

Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

We have but one regiment preparing, which has now nearly 500 men in Camp Curtin, and it furnishes the guard for the rebel prisoners sent there by General Banks. In view of the approaching harvest and the consequent difficulty attending the recruiting service, it has been considered better to confine our efforts to filling up the old than to attempt to recruit new regiments.

A. G. CURTIN,

Governor of Pennsylvania.

MADISON, WIS., June 18, 1862.

Hon. E. M. STANTON:

Your dispatch by the Adjutant-General is received. We have no troops in the State. Our operations in trying to raise a regiment are very much delayed by failure to receive reply to my dispatch of June 3, though I have three times requested a reply.

E. SALOMON,

Governor.

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, No. 69.
Washington, June 19, 1862.

The following is published for the information and guidance of all concerned, in connection with the act of June 2, 1862, promulgated in General Orders, No. 58:

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington City, D. C., June 16, 1862.

The Secretary of War is of the opinion that the "Act to prevent and punish fraud on the part of officers intrusted with making on the part of Government," approved June 2, 1862, applies only to such contracts as, under the laws and regulations in force at the time of its passage, were required to be in writing. The execution of the act in any other sense is utterly impracticable, and at attempt otherwise to enforce it would everywhere instant arrest the operation of all our forces. It is therefore

Ordered, That all contracts, which by the present regulations are prescribed to be made in writing, shall hereafter be made in quintuplicate, of which four shall be disposed of according to such regulations, and one shall be sent by the officer disposed of according to such regulations, and one shall be sent by the officer making and signing the same to the Return Office of the Department of the Interior,