may deem most advantageous to the service, he making report to Major Foster, chief of Bureau in the War Department for Organizing Colored Troops.

7. The colored troops to be called U. S. troops and numbered by regiments in consecutive order as organized.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[DECEMBER 22, 1863.-For General Hurlbut's Special Orders, Numbers 328, suspending General Orders, Numbers 157, with reference to impressment of citizens in so much of Kentucky as is included in the Sixteenth Army Corps, as Series I, Vol. XXXI, Part III, p. 470.]

CIRCULAR.] WAR DEPT., ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, December 23, 1863.

I. The six-months" troops now in the service of the United States who may desire to re-enlist for three years or during the war, before the expiration of the six-months" term, will be re- enlisted for the increased term, under the following regulations:

1. Where three-fourths of a regiment or other organization re- enlists, the officers thereof will be permitted to retain the rank held by them under the six-months" term.

2. Should less than three-fourths re-enlist, said force will be organized into one or more companies, of the authorized strength, and officered by such officers as may be selected from the original command, by the commanding-general of the army or department. The remainder will be continued under the remaining officers until the expiration of the six-months" term, and then discharged the service.

MUSTERS OUT OF SERVICE.

3. The muster out or discharge of all men who may re-enlist, and their re-enlistments and consequent remusters, will be under the immediate supervision and direction of the commissaries and assistant commissaries of musters for the respective armies and departments. The said officers will make all musters out of and remusters into the service.

4. All men who desire to take advantage of the benefits resulting from re-enlistment, under the provisions of this circular, will be regularly mustered out of service on the prescribed muster-out rolls. The discharges prescribed by paragraph 79, Mustering Regulations, will be furnished in all cases. A remark will be made on the muster-out rolls, over the signature of the commissary or assistant commissary of musters, as follows: "Discharged from the six-months" service by virtue of re- enlistment for three years or the war, under authority from the War Department, 1863."

RE-ENLISTMENTS AND REMUSTERS.

5. Simultaneously with the muster out and discharge, but of the date next following it, the six-months" troops will be formally remustered into the U. S. service "for three years or during the war."