Application for the appointments will be made to the Adjutant- General of the Army in the handwriting of the applicant, accompanied by one or more testimonials from respectable persons in regard to moral character.

The Board of Examiners will determine whether the candidate by fit for the position of surgeon or assistant surgeon; but no one under thirty years of age will be appointed to the former grade, or under twenty-one years to the latter grade.

After all the vacancies have been filled in the manner there prescribed future examinations will be for the grade of assistant surgeon only, and vacancies which may happen in the grade of surgeon will be filled by the appointment of assistant surgeon who shall have shown themselves worthy of promotion by a faithful performance of duty and general good conduct.

by order of the Secretary of War:

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

BERKELEY, July 15, 1862.

His Excellency Governor E. D. MORGAN:

GOVERNOR: I am sure that in the present emergency you will pardon me for venturing upon a few suggestions as to the most useful manner of increasing the strength of this army.

The greatest benefit can be conferred upon it would be to fill to the maximum the old regiments which have so nobly sustained the honor of the Union and their State. I would prefer 50,000 recruits for my old regiments to 100,000 men organized into new regiments, and I cannot too earnestly urge the imperative necessity of following this system. By far the best arrangement would be to fill up all the old companies. If that cannot be done, the next best thing is to consolidate the old companies and add new ones to each regiment. We have here the material for making excellent officers in the regiments. These men, tried and proved in many hard-fought battle, are infinitely to be preferred to any new appointments. More than that, they have won their promotions. Policy and gratitude alike demand that their claims should be recognized.

With the old regiments thus filled up, the whole army would in a very few weeks be ready for any service. New regiment would brought into action with untried and, in many cases, unfit officers. Again, I would earnestly impress upon you the great mistake of bringing men into the field for a less period than three years or the war. The contact of such troops with those enlisted for three years would soon breed dissatisfaction among the letter, while the term of service of the former would expire about the time they became valuable to the service. I would also urge the propriety, necessity rather, of sending recruits to their regiments as rapidly as enlisted. They will become soldiers here in one-tenth of the time they could in the home depots, and would have all the advantages of contact with the veterans who now compose this army.

I have also to ask you attention to the many officers an men who are now in the North on sick-leave, &c. Many thousands of these are fit for duty, and should at once be made to join their regiments. May

15 R R-SERIES III, VOL II