GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT., GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 324.
Washington, September 28, 1863.

I. The time for enlisting veteran volunteers under the provisions of General Orders, Numbers 191, current series, from this office, is hereby extended to December 1, 1863. This extension will not be considered as securing rank and pay to officers after August 25, the limit fixed in paragraph Vi of the said order.

II. Under paragraph III of the aforesaid order the first installment of bounty (section 1) is hereby increased to $60, thus making the "total payment on muster" &75; and the" remainder of the bounty" (section 8) at the expiration of three years" service, is reduced to $40.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

CIRCULAR,
WAR DEPT., PROV. March GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 90.
Washington, September 28, 1863.

Immediately upon the completion of the draft in any district the surgeon of the Board of Enrollment therein will compile and forward to this office the statistic of the causes of exemption on account of physical disability from such draft in his district. This report will show the whole number of men drafted in the district, with an alphabetical list of the several kinds of disability and the number rejected for each, and will be accompanied by a detailed statement of such other facts as may be of scientific importance to the medical profession of the Army.

JAMES B. FRY,

Provost-Marshal-General.

NOTRE DAME, IND., September 28, 1863.

His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

President of the United States:

SIR: The order of the Holy Cross, consisting of priests, brothers, and sisters, and whose principal house in the United States is situated at Notre Dame, State of Indiana, humbly appeals to your justice and goodness for a kind hearing.

We most respectfully venture to ask of Your Excellency the privilege of being exempted from the military service, or rather from bearing arms. Not indeed, because we are opposed to the measures which our rightful Government thinks proper to adopt and enact for the vigorous prosecution of the war-for that is, we sincerely believe, the speediest way to effectually crush down rebellion and restore peace to the nation-but on account of our true devotion to the Union and the constant support we have willingly and cheerfully given to the Government in sending with our armies six priests as chaplains (One died in a hospital a victim of his devotion to his country's cause, and three others went at the expense of the order), and in our army and navy hospitals nearly forty sisters as nurses. To serve as chaplains or nurses we always willingly do, as it is in conformity with our vocation; but to bear arms even in a war we deem right and just is very repugnant to our religious and sacred calling; nay more, priests, or clerics cannot shed blood without incurring ipso facto the censures of the church.