or evidence against the character, conduct, or fitness of the appointee, and if there should be any such charges or evidence, a special report of the same will be made to the President.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., August 18, 1862.

Brigadier General JAMES WADSWORTH,

Commanding Military District of Washington:

SIR: You are hereby authorized by the Secretary of War to raise and organize one or more regiments of volunteer infantry, the same to be required in the District of Columbia, and to serve for three years, or during the war. The said volunteers will be placed on the same footing as those raised in the respective States, so far as bounty and allowances are concerned. Each regiment will be organized as prescribed in the act of July 22, 1861, "to authorize the employment of volunteers, &c.," (except that no bands will be authorized).*

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

T. M. VINCENT,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

MEMPHIS, August 18, 1862.

(Via Columbus, Ky., 24th, 1 p. m. Received 9. 10 p. m., 24th.)

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief:

Dispatch received. Will religiously carry out any line of policy as to trade the proper authority distastes, and with absolute confidence in its right, as soon as I feel that you are at the helm. I have now a steamer, seized for exchanging salt for cotton without military or customhouse permits. Salat is eminently contraband because [of] its use in curing meats, without which armies cannot be subsisted. If vigorous war measure are contemplated, I think all commerce should cease. To carry on trade with the interior all our soldiers must be made customhouse spies, as all closed packages may and do contain contraband. We find clothing, percussion-caps, and salt concealed in every conceivable shape, and I doubt not than thousands of pistols reach the interior in this way. All the people of the South are now arming as partisan riders, daring not to be guerrillas.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, D. C., August 18, 1862.

His Excellency WILLIAM A. BUCKINGHAM,

Governor of Connecticut, Hartford:

Required to fill up your regiments in the field August 13, 1862, 4,000 men.

C. P. BUCKINGHAM,

Brigadier-General and Assistant Adjutant-General.

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* Details of organization omitted.

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