GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, No. 9.
Washington, January 4, 1864.

The hospital and ambulance flags of the Army are established as follows:

For general hospitals, yellow bunting nine by five feet, with the letter H, twenty-four inches long, of green bunting, in center.

For post and field hospitals, yellow bunting six by four feet, with letter H, twenty-four inches long, of green bunting in center.

For ambulances and guidous to mark the to field hospitals, yellow bunting fourteen by twenty-eight inches, with a border, one inch deep, of green.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICER, Washington, D. C., January 4, 1864.

GEORGE BLISS, Jr., Esq.,

No. 50 Wall Street, New York:

SIR: In reply to your letter of the 31st ultimo, stating that the Twentieth Regiment U. S. Colored Troops is recruited nearly to the maximum and requesting that the Union League Club be authorized to raise another colored regiment, I am directed by the Secretary of War to say that your request is hereby complied with, and the regiment will be known and designated as the Twenty-sixth Regiment U. S. Colored Troops.

The instructions contained in Department letter of December 3, 1863, addressed to you, will govern in the organization of this regiment.*

I have the honor to be, &c.,

C. W. FOSTER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

JANUARY 5, 1864.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:

By a joint resolution of your Honorable bodies, approved December 23, 1863, the paying of bounties to veteran volunteers, as now practiced by the War Department, is, to the extent of $300 in each case, prohibited after this 5th day of the present month. I transmit for your consideration a communication from the Secretary of War, accompanied by one from the Provost-Marshal- General to him, both relating be so modified as to allow bounties to be paid, as they now are, at least until the ensuing 1st day of February.

I am not without anxiety lest I appear to be importance in thus recalling your attention to a subject upon which you have so recently acted; and nothing but a deep conviction that the public interest demands it could induce me to incur the hazard of being misunderstood on this point. The Executive approval was given by me to the resolution mentioned; and it is now by a closer attention and a fuller knowledge of facts that I feel constrained to recommend a reconsideration of the subject.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

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*See Vol. III, this series p.1117.

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