All has been done that seemed proper under existing laws to check these evils and to meet properly the few cases of criminality and incompetency which have occurred among the officers of this Bureau.

All the expenditures up to this time on account of this Bureau, including the enrollment, draft, and pay of officers, and persons connected with it, are but little over $1,200,000. These expenditures include all made on account of the machinery which has produced the arrest and return of 20,000 deserters.

The amount of money received from the draft up this date is about ten times as great as all the expenses incurred on account of the enrollment act. Those resulting from the New York riots are not, however, included in this statement, as they are more properly attributable to other causes and other persons than to the draft or to the officers of this Bureau.

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

JAMES B. FRY,

Provost-Marshal-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., October 19, 1863.

Colonel WILLIAM BIRNEY,

Second U. S. Colored Troops,

Recruiting and Mustering Officer, Baltimore, Md.:

COLONEL: By direction of the Secretary of War there will be forwarded to you this day twenty copies of the Regulations for the Recruiting Service of the Army of the United States, a copy of which will be placed in the hands of each recruiting officer for colored troops.

The order announcing the opening of recruiting stations will be published as soon as possible.

In order to be ready to commence operations you should immediately make requisition on the Adjutant-General of the Army for a reasonable supply of enlistment papers, and also for descriptive lists, as each owner who offers his slave for enlistment is to be furnished with a descriptive list of such slave after he has been duly enlisted.

The owner who voluntarily offers his slave for enlistment will, after said slave has been duly enlisted, be furnished by the recruiting officer with a certificate to show that his slave has been duly enlisted, &c.

This certificate must be countersigned by the examining surgeon and by yourself as mustering officer. The necessary blank certificates are being prepared by the printer, and will be sent to you to put in the hands of recruiting officers as early as practicable.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

C. W. FOSTER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

CINCINNATI, October 19, 1863.

Major General U. S. GRANT,

Vicksburg:

GENERAL: I have received from you a copy of your letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, dated 26th ultimo, concerning trade within your department.

I am exceedingly glad your views are modified. They now correspond with those of the Secretary. Trade should be prohibited entirely or re-established with such restrictions only as are necessary