[Indorsement.]

JUNE 11, 1863.

Submitted to the Secretary of War.

A. LINCOLN.

[Inclosure.]

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, November 28, 1862.

Francis Patrick Kenrick, archbishop of Baltimore, and Right Rev. B. Wimmer, abbot of the Benediction monastery, Latrobe, Pa., having represented to this Department that four of the "monks" of the order of Saint Benedict have been drafted into the military service of the United State; that by the religious belief and doctrine of said order it is unlawful to bear arms, and that the monks are bound irrevocably to the order by solemn vows, and are thereby prevented from taking up arms, their mission being a mission of peace, it is hereby ordered that the members of the Benediction order are relieved from military duty.

By order of the Secretary of War:

C. P. BUCKINGHAM,

Brigadier-General and Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 173.
Washington June 11, 1863.

To execute more promptly the provisions of General Orders, Nos. 105 and 130, from this Department, it is hereby ordered:

1. General Orders, Numbers 69, War Department, March 20, 1863, is hereby revoked, and the officers and enlisted men referred to therein shall be examined for admission into the Invalid Corps, and if found to meet the requirements of General Orders, Nos. 105 and 130, shall be transferred to the Invalid Corps in the manner prescribed in General Orders, Numbers 105.

2. That so soon as the rolls of officers and men for the Invalid Corps are made out (according to form furnished) they shall be sent by commanders of regiments, batteries, independent companies, and detachments, to the commanders of the army corps to which the persons named on the rolls belong.

Immediately on the receipt of these rolls the corps commanders, having examined and indorsed them in accordance with General Orders, Numbers 105, War Department, 1863, shall issue orders transferring all such officers and men to the Invalid Corps, and dropping them from the rolls of the active force, and will forward the rolls, with a copy of his order of transfers, to the Provost-Marshal-General at Washington. The previous military history of every officer and soldier will, as far as practicable, be stated on the invalid roll. Medical officers and chaplains will not at present be transferred.

3. That the rolls of men for the Invalid Corps, prepared by commanders of convalescent camps, commanders of invalid detachments, and medical officers in charge of hospitals or depots of convalescents, shall as soon as made out, be forwarded to the Provost-Marshal-General direct.

4. That the commanding officers of the various army corps shall also direct that the men thus transferred be at once collected together by staff officers, and sent under charge of proper officers, with their descriptive list and clothing account, to the point designated below