Whenever, therefore, a certain amount per man is levied upon a county or town as bounty, he will hold this amount shall be paid to the recruit, and that any other appropriation of its is unlawful. If the county or town authorities raise money to pay the expenses of recruiting as well as for bounty, then the amount they appropriate for each purpose should be distinctly and specifically stated; that is, so much as bounty to each recruit and so much for the person who presents him. If they say in so many words, as one county has done, that the recruit shall have $200 and the man who presents him $100, in addition to the fixed sum paid by the United States, however unjust such a distribution may be to the recruit and the tax-payers, there is no authority to interfere with it. The only remedy for the recruit is to enlist where he is more liberally treated, and for the tax-payers to place their money in the hands of men who will not lavish it on runners and bounty brokers.

By command of Major-General Dix:

D. T. VAN BUREN,

Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

LITTLE ROCK, ARK., March 26, 1864.

(Received 6 p. m. 27th.)

His Excellency A. LINCOLN,

President:

Are new recruits enlisting in Arkansas regiments nor forming and to be formed entitled to the $300 bounty? A speedy answer is very important to the recruiting service just now. In organizing State government, want of funds is the trouble. There are none. Will you advise me? Answer.

ISAAC MURPHY,

Provisional Governor of Arkansas.

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

March 26, 1864.

General N. B. BAKER,

Adjutant-General of Iowa, Davenport, Iowa:

GENERAL: In my letter of the 14th instant I inadvertently omitted to refer to the 209 recruits mustered into service in the field, and for which you claim credit. Concerning these men, we have no reports from mustering officers showing the musters, nor can the muster-in-rolls be traced. In claims of this kind the circumstances under which men were mustered into service in the field should be stated, as the regulations look to all musters for field regiments being made in the States and by the U. S. mustering officers thereof. Musters made otherwise are in violation of regulations and cause delays in making credits. Under the rules, therefore, the said men cannot now be credited, but they will be credited promptly so soon as the proper rolls and reports shall have been received.

The foregoing is in reply to your letter of the 18th instant.

I have the honor, &c.,

THOMAS M. VINCENT,

Assistant Adjutant-General.