[Second indorsement.]

I entirely disapprove of withdrawing regiments in the field. They should be filled up where they are.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, D. C., September 30, 1862.

His Excellency Governor CURTIN,

Harrisburg, Pa.:

The regiment from Northampton will be received and mustered for nine months in lieu of militia drafted, but will be placed on the footing of militia as to pay and bounty. Supplies will be furnished under the same regulations as for militia.

By order of Secretary of War:

C. P. BUCKINGHAM,

Brigadier-General and Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 148.
Washington, October 1, 1862.

Simeon Draper, esq., of New York, has been appointed, from this date, Provost-Marshal-General of the War Department, under the provisions of General Orders, Numbers 140. He will be respected accordingly.

By order of the Secretary of War:

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

CIRCULAR.] QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington City, October 1, 1862.

In order to remove the cause of many of the irregularities, delays, and blockades that occur on the military railroads of the United States, the following general instructions are published, and will be observed by all officers and agents of the Quartermaster's Department:

1. Supplies will not be forwarded to the advanced terminus of military railroads until they are really needed.

2. All cars will be unloaded and returned immediately. They must not be detained for use as store-houses.

3. Trains should not on any account be detained beyond their regular time of starting. It is better to furnish extra trains should the exigencies of the service demand them, rather than cause delay to the regular schedule trains. A detention of a train for only a few minutes may throw the whole business of a road into confusion, especially if there be but a single track.

M. C. MEIGS,

Quartermaster-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, October 1, 1862.

Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR:

SIR: In obedience to the requirements of the dispatches of the Department of the 10th and 18th ultimo, which reached me by the

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