The troops raised under the foregoing instructions will rendezvous at Camp William Penn, Chelten Hills, near Philadelphia, where they will be received and subsisted as soon as they are enlisted, and an officer will be assigned to duty at that post to take command of them on their arrival and make the necessary requisitions for supplies.

It is expected and desired that you should confer with Major Geo. L. Stearns, assistant adjutant-general, U. S. Volunteers, and recruiting commissioner for U. S. Colored Troops, now in your city, for the purpose of assisting you in this work. You will please keep him advised of your progress.

I am, & c.,

C. W. FOSTER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

PHILADELPHIA, June 22, 1863.

Honorable E. M. STANTON:

The committee to supervise recruiting for colored regiments for the war think they can raise three regiments for the war provided no authority issues for raising colored troops for six months.

THOMAS WEBSTER,

Chairman of said Committee.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, June 22, 1863.

THOMAS WEBSTER,

Philadelphia:

No authority will be given to raise colored regiments for a less period than three years or during the war.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

[JUNE 22, 1863. - For correspondence relating to West Virginia militia, see Boreman to Stanton, Series I, Vol. XXVII, Part III, p. 265.]

QUARTERMASTER'S DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF TRANSPORTATION,

Saint Louis, June 23, 1863.

General R. ALLEN,

Chief Quartermaster, Saint Louis, Mo.:

GENERAL: Herewith, in accordance with General Meigs" request, I hand you some suggestions which have occurred to me as judicious for the more efficient and economical management of army river transportation in the West. I feel assured that there is great opportunity for improvement in this branch of the service, and think the suggestions I have made will tend in that direction. Experience would, no doubt, tend to further improvement. I have now been on duty here for about twenty months. What was the extravagance, confusion, and lack of system in this branch of the service when I was assigned to duty you are well advised, as you found the same prevailing everywhere in the department. You are also advised of such changes as I