tageous to the service than any personal duty elsewhere. You will therefore return immediately to Washington and take charge of your Bureau. You will acknowledge the receipt of this telegram.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, D. C., December 27, 1863.

Honorable J. W. NESMITH,

U. S. Senate:

SIR: There having been many complaints made against the list of disqualifications which should exempt men from draft, published for the guidance of the Provost-Marshal-General's Department, under the clause of the enrollment act requiring men to be rejected who are physically or mentally unfit for the service, the Secretary of War desires your aid as a member of a commission, during the existing recess of Congress, to whom he will refer the present regulations on the subject, that he may receive the benefit of your advice as to their revision. The Secretary would be glad to have the Commission meet, if practicable, on Tuesday evening, the 29th instant, at 8 o"clock, at the War Department.

Will you please signify in person, or by a note addressed to me, whether it will suit your convenience to attend?

I have the honor, &c.,

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

(Same to Honorable William Sprague, U. S. Senate; Honorable H. S. Lane, U. S. Senate; Honorable E. D. Morgan, U. S. Senate; Honorable Henry Wilson, U. S. Senate; Honorable J. M. Howard, U. S. Senate; Honorable B. Gratz Brown, U. S. Senate; Honorable R. C. Schenck, House of Representatives; Honorable George H. Yeaman, House of Representatives; Honorable Benjamin F. Loan, House of Representatives; Honorable H. C. Deming, House of Representatives; Honorable J. F. Farnsworth, House of Representatives; Honorable James A. Garfield, House of Representatives; Honorable M. F. Odell, House of Representatives; Honorable F. W. Kellogg, House of Representatives; Honorable A. McAllister House of Representatives.)

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 400.
Washington, December 28, 1863.

The following joint resolution by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America is published for the information of all concerned:

JOINT RESOLUTION to supply, in part, deficiencies in the appropriations for the public printing and to supply deficiencies in the appropriations for bounties to volunteers.

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That to supply deficiencies, in part, in the appropriations for the public printing, the sum of fifty thousand dollars be, and the same hereby is, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

That the sum of twenty millions of dollars, or so much thereof as may be required, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated for the payment of bounties and advance pay: Provided, That no bounties except such as are now provided by law shall be paid to any persons enlisted after the fifth day of January next.