VOLUNTEER SERVICE.

For the safe-keeping of recruits and drafted men obtained by provost-marshal and other recruiting officers, and to facilitate the forwarding of them to regiments in the field, twenty-one depots are established in the principal States at convenient points. They are located as follows:

One at Portland, for the State of Maine; one at Concord, for the State of New Hampshire; one at Gallupe's Island, Boston, for the State of Massachusetts; one at New Haven, Conn., for the States of Vermont, Rhode Island, and Connecticut; on at Hart's Island, New York Harbor, and one at Elmira, N. Y., for the State of New York; one at Trenton, for the State of New Jersey; one at Philadelphia, one at Pittsburgh, and one at Carlisle, for the State of Pennsylvania; one at Baltimore, for the State of Ohio; one at Jackson, for the State of Michigan; one at Indianapolis, for the State of Indiana; one at Springfield, for the State of Illinois; one at Madison, for the State of Wisconsin; one at Davenport, for the State of Iowa; one at Fort Snelling, for the State of Minnesota; one at Saint Louis, for the State of Missouri; one at Nashville, for the State of Tennessee; one at Louisville, for the State of Kentucky.

At these depots the recruits receive such clothing as they may require and the bounty to which they are entitled. They are also examined a second time by a board of medical officers, which pronounces finally upon their fitness for the Army, and if passed they are promptly forwarded to their regiments. Details of officers and enlisted men are made from the several armies, who are employed in guarding the depots and in escorting detachments to the regiments to which they are assigned. The troops of the Veteran Reserve Corps have also been of great service on this duty.

Under the act of Congress approved February 24, 1864, providing for transfers from the military to the naval service, there have been 3,568 enlisted men forwarded from the several armies and departments to the different naval stations.

In addition to the twenty-one general rendezvous, there are six special rendezvous in the rebel States for the reception of recruits obtained under section 3 of the act of Congress approved July 4, 1864, which are located as follows:

At Camp Casey, near Alexandria, Va., for Northeast Virginia; at Fort Monroe, Va., for Southeast Virginia; at New Berne, N. C., for the State of North Carolina; at Hilton Head, S. C., for the States of South Carolina and Florida; at Vicksburg, Miss., for the State of Mississippi; at Nashville, Tenn., for the States of Georgia and Alabama.

The benefit resulting from the boards of examination for sick and wounded officers instituted at Annapolis and Cincinnati cannot be too highly estimated. Through their means officers who might otherwise have been quite unemployed, because only fit for light duty, have been designated for detail on courts-martial, for service at the rendezvous for volunteers and drafted men, at camps for rebel prisoners, at camps of distribution for convalescents, stragglers, &c., and for recruiting and mustering duty. Thus the armies in the field have been relieved from detachments which otherwise would necessarily have been made from them.

The recommendation of these boards usually determines the action of the Department as to discharging sick and wounded officers from