General orders. No. 173

GENERAL ORDERS ) WAR DEPARTMENT,

v Adjutant General’s Office,

No. 173. ) Washington, June 11, 1863.

To execute more promptly the provisions of General Orders Nos. 105
and 130, from this Department, it is hereby ordered —

1. General Orders No. 69, War Department, March 20, 1863, is
hereby revoked, and the officers and enlisted men referred to therein
shall be examined for admission into the Invalid Corps, and if found
to meet the requirements of General Orders Nos. 105 and 130, shall
be transferred to the Invalid Corps in the manner prescribed in General
Orders No. 105.

2. That so soon as the Rolls of officers and men for the Invalid
Corps are made out, (according to form furnished,) they shall be sent
by Commanders of Regiments, Batteries, Independent Companies, and
Detachments, to the Commanders of the Army Corps to which the
persons named on the Rolls belong.

Immediately on the receipt of these Rolls the Corps Commanders,
having examined and indorsed them in accordance with General
Orders No. 105, War Department, 1863, shall issue orders transferring
all such officers and men to the Invalid Corps, and dropping them
from the Rolls of the active force, and will forward the Rolls, with a
copy of his order of transfers, to the Provost Marshal General at
Washington. The previous military history of every officer and sol¬
dier will, as far as practicable, be stated on the Invalid Roll. Medical
officers and chaplains will not at present be transferred.

3. That the rolls of men for the Invalid Corps, prepared by com¬
manders of convalescent camps, commanders of invalid detachments,
and medical officers in charge of hospitals or depots of convalescents,
shall, as soon as made out, be forwarded to the Provost Marshal Gene¬
ral direct.

4. That the commanding officers of the various army corps shall a’s >
direct that the men thus transferred be at once collected together by
staff officers, and sent under charge of proper officers, with their
descriptive list and clothing account, to the points designated below

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for their respective corps. The arms and accoutrements may bs sent
with the men or not as the corps commander deems best.

Officers and men on the Rolls sent from the Army Corps in the Army
of the Potomac and Department of Washington, will report to Lieut’
Col. Samuel McKelvey, at the Convalescent Camp, near Alexandria’ •
Virginia.

Those on the Rolls sent from the Army Corps under the command
of Major Generals Banks, Hunter, and Foster, will report to Colonel
R Nugent, 69th New York Volunteers, and Acting Assistant Provost
Marshal General at New York city.

Those on the Rolls sent from the Army Corps under the command
of Major Generals Dix and Keyes, will report to Colonel C. M. Pre- I
vost, 118th Pennsylvania Volunteers, commanding Depot Camp at
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Those on the Rolls sent from Army Corps in Kentucky, and in the
Department of the Cumberland, will report to Major W. H. Sidell,at
Louisville, Kentucky.

Those on the Rolls sent from the Army Corps under the command
of Major Generals Grant and Schofield, will report to Colonel E. B.
Alexander, at St. Louis, Missouri.

Commanders of Army Corps will notify the Provost Marshal General,
by the most expeditious means of communication, when detachments
of invalids are directed to leave the corps in compliance with this order.
The monthly returns of regiments and independent commands will state
the number of officers and men transferred to the Invalid Corps, and
Corps Commanders will consolidate and enter this information in their
monthly returns to the Adjutant General’s Office.

Hereafter in giving discharges to officers and soldiers, on account of
disability, their discharge papers must always state whether, at the
time of discharge, the officer or soldier was or was not physically suit¬
able to enter or re-enlist in the Invalid Corps.

So much of General Orders No. 105, from this department, as for¬
bids the “ discharge of any man upon surgeon’s certificate of disability
who may be fit for service in the 'Invalid Corps” is so far modified as 1
not to include officers.

5. That no commissioned officer in the Invalid Corps will receive a

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higher commission for the present thaa Major. The claims to higher
grades will be duly considered as tlw organization of the Corps pro¬
gresses.

By order of the Secretary of War.

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant Generel.