are ordered to appear as soon as they are able to travel. They undergo an examination by the Board and are recommended, according to their condition, for light duty, for further leave of absence, or for medical treatment in a general hospital of the city where the Board is in session. But if found fit for duty, the president of the Board orders them forthwith to their regiments. The reports of the boards are a guide to the Adjutant-General in making details, for mustering recruiting or other light duty, and in recommendations for leave of absence, or discharge where the nature of the disability requires. The reports of the boards, taken in connection with regimental reports of absent officers, and the surgeons" certificates from such officers form a complete system or accountability for absence from duty.

The officers of the Adjutant-General's Department are employed as follows:

One brigadier-general, on special service organizing troops in the Southwest;one colonel, in charge of the Adjutant-General's Office, War Department, one colonel and one major, major-generals of volunteers; one lieutenant-colonel and four majors, on duty in the Adjutant-General" Office; one lieutenant-colonel (brigadier- general of volunteers) adjutant-general, Army of the Potomac; one lieutenant-colonel and two majors, at headquarters of military departments; one lieutenant-colonel, colonel [and] Provost- Marshal-General; one major, on duty in the office of the General- in-Chief; one major, brigadier-general of volunteers; three majors, in Provost-Marshal-General's Bureau; one major, on duty with Military Governor of District of Columbia, an assistant adjutant-general of volunteers, with the rank of major, is in charge of the Bureau for Colored Troops; his report is herewith submitted. A captain of artillery (additional aide-de-camp, with rank of major) is also on duty in the Adjutant-General's Office.

Respectfully submitted.

E. D. TOWNSEND

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Inclosure.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

BUREAU FOR COLORED TROOPS,

Washington, D. C., October 31, 1863.

Honorable E. M. STANTON:

Secretary of War, War Department, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: In obedience to your instructions the following report of the operations of this Bureau is respectfully submitted:

The Bureau for Colored Troops was established by General Orders, Numbers 143, current series, War Department, dated May 22, and a few days subsequent thereto the officer now in charge entered upon his duties, in compliance with orders from the Adjutant- General of the Army.

Under the authority of the War Department two colored regiments had already been raised in Massachusetts; in the State of North Carolina one regiment had been recruited by Brigadier General E. A. Wild, U. S. Volunteers, in the State of South Carolina three small regiments had been organized by Brigadier General R. Saxton, U. S. Volunteers, Honorable James H. Lane had recruited one regiment in Kansas; Brigadier-General Ullmann had left New York and taking with him the officers