General orders. No. 130

GENERAL ORDERS, ) WAR DEPARTMENT,

% Adjutant General’s Office,

No. 130. ) Washington, May 15, 1863.

In executing the provisions of General Orders, No. 105, from this
Department, in regard to the selection of men for the Invalid Corps,
Medical Inspectors, Surgeons in charge of Hospitals, Camps, Regiments,
or of Boards of Enrolment, Military Commanders, and all others
required to make the physical examination of men for the Invalid
Corps, will be governed in their decisions by the following list of
qualifications and disqualifications for admission into this Corps:

Physical infirmities that do not disqualify enlisted men for service in the “ Invalid

Corps.”

1. Paralysis, if confined to the left upper extremity, and the man’s
previous occupation fit him for the duty of clerk, orderly, &c.

2. Simple hypertrophy of the heart unaccompanied by valvular lesion ;
functional derangement of the stomach, (dyspepsia;) mild chronic
diarrhoea ; simple enlargement of the liver or spleen ; a temporary ail¬
ment of the kidneys or bladder.

3. Chronic rheumatism, unless manifested by positive change of
structure, wasting of the affected limb or puffiness or distortion of the
joints.

4. Pain, unless accompanied with manifest derangement of the general
health, wasting of a limb, or other positive sign of disease.

5. Myopia, unless very decided or depending upon structural change
of the eye.

6. Stammering, unless excessive and confirmed.

7. Loss of teeth or unsound teeth.

8. Porticollis.

9. Reducible hernia.

10. Hemorrhoids.

11. Stricture of the urethra.

12. Incontinence of urine.

13. Loss or complete atrophy of both testicles from any cause ; per¬
manent retention of one or both testicles within the inguinal canal.

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14. Varicocele and cirsocele.

15. Loss of left arm, left forearm or left hand, if the man be quali¬
fied for duty of clerk or orderly.

16. Loss of leg or foot, provided the man have the inclination and
aptitude for service in a general hospital, and is recommended for that
duty by a medical officer, or if qualified for the duty of clerk or or¬
derly.

17. Old and irreducible dislocation of shoulder and elbow in which
the bones have accommodated themselves to their new relations.

18. Muscular and cutaneous contraction of left arm, provided the
man may be employed as clerk, orderly, or messenger.

19. Loss of left thumb; partial loss of either thumb.

20. Loss of first and second phalanges of all the fingers of the left
hand.

21. Total loss of any two fingers of the same hand.

22. Total loss of index finger of right hand.

23. Permanent extension of any finger of the right hand; perma¬
nent extension or contraction of any finger of the left hand.

24. Adherent or united fingers

25. Loss of any toe or toes except the great toe; all the toes joined
together.

26. Deformities of the toes, if not sufficient to prevent walking.

27. Large, fiat, ill-shaped feet that do not come within the designa¬
tion of talipes valgus.

28. Varicose veins not accompanied with ulcerations.

29. Gunshot wounds or injuries not involving loss of function.

30. None of the foregoing informities disqualify officers for service
in the Invalid Corps.

In all cases where the physical infirmities of officers or enlisted men
come within the provisions of the above list, they will be recommended
for transfer to, or enlistment in, the Invalid Corps; but no one will be
admitted into this Corps, whose previous record does not show that he
is meritorious and deserving, and that he has complied with the provi¬
sions of General Orders, No. 105, War Department, Adjutant General’s
Office, 1863, authorizing an Invalid Corps.

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Physical infirmities that disqualify enlisted men for service in the Invalid Corps

1. Manifest imbecility or insanity.

2. Epilepsy, if the seizures occur more frequently than once a month,
and have obviously impaired the mental faculties.

3. Paralysis or chorea.

4. Acute or organic diseases of the brain or spinal chord; of the
heart or lungs; of the stomach or intestines; of the liver or spleen; of
the kidneys or bladder, sufficient to have impaired the general health,
or so well marked as to leave no reasonable doubt of the man’s inca¬
pacity for military service.

5. Confirmed consumption ; cancer; aneurism of important arteries.

6. Inveterate and extensive disease of the skin.

7. Scrofula, or constitutional syphilis, which has resisted treatment
and seriously impaired the general health.

8. Habitual or confirmed intemperance, or solitary vice, sufficient in
degree to have materially enfeebled the constitution.

9. Great injuries or diseases of the skull, occasioning impairment of
the intellectual faculties, epilepsy, or other serious nervous or spas¬
modic symptoms.

10. Total loss of sight, or other serious diseases of the eye, affecting
its integrity and use.

11. Loss of nose, or deformity of nose, if sufficient seriously to ob¬
struct respiration; ozcena, if dependent upon caries.

12. Deafness.

13. Dumbness ; permanent loss of voice.

14. Total loss of tongue, partial less, and hypertrophy or atrophy of
tongue, if sufficient to make the speech unintelligible and prevent
mastication or deglutition.

15. Incurable deformities of either jaw, whether congenital or pro¬
duced by accident, which would prevent mastication or greatly injure
the speech.

16 Tumors of the neck impeding respiration or deglutition; fistula
of larynx or trachea.

17. Deformity of the chest, sufficient to impede respiration, or to
prevent the cairying of arms and military equipments ; caries of the
ribs ; gunshot wound of the lung, if complicated with fracture of a rib.

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18. Artificial arms ; severe stricture of the rectum.

19. Total loss, or nearly total loss, of penis; epispadia, or hypos-
padia, at the middle or nearer the root of penis; stone in the bladder.

20. Confirmed or malignant sarcocele ; hydrocele, if complicated
with organic disease of the testis.

21. Excessive anterior or posterior curvature of spine; caries of the
spine ; lumbar abscess.

22. Loss of a thigh.

23. Wounds, fractures, tumors, atrophy of a limb, or chronic
diseases of the joints or bone that would prevent marching or any
considerable muscular exertion.

24. Anchylosis, or irreducible dislocation of the shoulder, elbow,
wrist, hip, knee, or ankle joint.

25. Muscular or cutaneous contractions from wounds or burns in
degree sufficient to prevent useful motion of the right arm or of the
lower extremities.

26. With the exception of those paragraphs which refer to the total
or partial loss of an extremity, the foregoing disabilities disqualify
officers as well as enlisted men for service in the Invalid Corps.

In all oases where the physical infirmities of an officer or enlisted
man come within the provisions of this list, or where his previous
record shows that he is not entitled to be received into the Invalid
Corps, he will, if in service, be discharged, and if an applicant to re¬
enter, his application will be disapproved.

Whilst the government is most anxious to provide for and employ,
to the best of their abilities, those faithful soldiers who, from wounds
or the hardships of war, are no longer able to perform active duty in
the field, yet it can, upon no account, permit men, undeserving or to¬
tally disabled, to re-enter its service.

Those faithful soldiers whose physical infirmities are too great to
admit of their beiog of any use in the Invalid Corps will, neverthe¬
less, receive the pensions and bounties provided by law.

It is further announced that no officer or enlisted man shall be en¬
titled to or receive any pension, premium, or bounty, for enlistment,
re-enlistment, or service in the Invalid Corps. They will receive all
other pay and allowances now authorized by law for the U. S. Infantry

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except the increased pay for re-enlistment. Claims for pensions or
bounties which may be due for previous service will not be invalidated
by enlistment in the Invalid Corps. But no pensions can be drawn or
accrue to the benefit of any man during his service in said Corp3. The
officers and men will be organized into Companies of Infantry, of the
same strength as is now authorized by law for the U. S. Infantry.
No organized Brigades, Regiments, Companies, or parts of Companies,
will be accepted as such. Enlistments in this Corps will be for three
years, unless sooner discharged.

By order of the Secretary of War .

E. D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant General.