MILEAGE. The Second Comptroller of the Treasury has decided that where an order directing travel specified that transportation was to be furnished by the Quartermaster's Department, the order could not be subsequently amended so as to give mileage, and the Secretary of War has more than once decided that he has no jurisdiction to overturn or set aside the decision of the Comptroller.-[Letter, Aug. 5, 84—3495 A. G. O., 1884.] EXPENDITURE OF NON-RELOADING CARTRIDGES. General Orders, No. 18, current series, from this office, authorizing the expenditure of non-reloading rifle and carbine ball-cartridges is not retroactive.-[Letter, Aug. 7, 84-894 A. G. O., 1884.] 66 FIGURE OF MERIT" IN TARGET PRACTICE. A man who is discharged from the service because he enlisted under false pretenses will not be counted in computing the figure of merit in target practice of the company from which he was discharged.—[ Letter, Aug. 12, 84-3598 A. G. O., 1884.] CANVAS CLOTHING. men, None of the canvas clothing is to be charged to the enlisted and consequently if charged the men should be credited on their clothing accounts with the money value of the same. General Orders, No. 32, current series, from this office, is quite plain. It provides for the issue of this kind of clothing to each enlisted man who may be required to work on extra, daily, or fatigue duty. It may be supposed that non-commissioned officers are to be with the other enlisted men and exposed to all sorts of weather and dirt, and should, under the discretion of the post commander, be permitted to draw and wear the canvas clothing.—[Indorsement, Aug. 16, 84-3686 A. G. O., 1884.] AWARD OF MEDALS AT RIFLE CONTESTS. At annual rifle contests the department medal will be awarded that competitor who wins the highest place on the department team, as now constituted under the provisions of paragraph IV, General Orders, No. 12, current series, from this office. Division medals will be awarded those winning places upon the division teams in the manner prescribed by that order.-[Letter, Aug. 21, 84-3667 A. G. O., 1884.] POST BAKERS. The payment to post bakers of an additional fifteen cents per diem, to make the rates correspond with those now allowed to men employed on extra duty, and paid by the Quartermaster's Department, as published in General Orders, No. 65, current series, from this office, is deemed a proper charge against the post fund.—[Letter, Aug. 21, 84—3711 A. G. O., 1884.] IMPORTATION OF BOOKS. In the matter of the importation of books, an officer of the Army stands in the same position as any other citizen of the United States, his commission as an officer of the Army giving him no special privilege therein under the law. [ Letter, Treas. Dept., Aug. 22, 84—3891 A. G. O., 1884.] OFFICERS ORDERED TO DUTY WHILE ON LEAVE. An officer who, while on leave of absence, receives an order to perform duty to commence at a future date, specified in the order, is not, under the operation of paragraph 2425 of the Regulations, to be regarded as on a status of duty until the date he may be required to start to obey the order.-[Decision Lieut. Gen., Aug. 23, 84-4355 A. G. O., A. C. P., 1884.] EXTRA-DUTY PAY. The provisions of the act of Congress of July 5, 1884, making appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year 1884-5, allowing thirty-five cents per day extra-duty pay to teamsters, laborers, &c., applies to all extra labor which comes under section 1287, Revised Statutes.[Letter, Aug. 26, 84–7466в, A. G. O., E. B., 1884.] BY COMMAND OF LIEUTENANT GENERAL SHERIDAN : OFFICIAL: CHAUNCEY MCKEEVER, Acting Adjutant General. CIRCULAR, No. 9. HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, The following decisions, rulings, &c., have been made during the month of September, 1884, and are published to the Army for the information of all concerned : PAYMENT OF INTERPRETERS TO COURTS-MARTIAL. The decision published in Circular, No. 7, current series, from this office, should read as follows: Interpreters to courts-martial are paid by the Pay Department upon the certificate of the judge advocate that they were employed by order of the court. They will be allowed the pay and allowances of a citizen witness.-[Indorsement, July 22, 84–3191 A. G. O., 1884.] MILEAGE. Mileage for a journey performed by a recruiting officer, in obedience to legitimate orders, for the purpose of delivering to a court a return to a writ of habeas corpus, is payable from the appropriation for that purpose disbursed by the Pay Department.-[Letter, Sept. 4, 84-3836 A. G. O., 1834.] FIGURE OF MERIT IN TARGET PRACTICE. Field officers who have practiced during the target year may be considered in calculating the figures of merit of the organizations to which they belong.-[Letter, Sept. 8, 84-4093 A. G. O., 1884.] In addition to the exceptions authorized by General Orders, No. 25, series of 1883, and General Orders, No. 12, current series, from this office, men in confinement, under guard, during the entire target practice season will be disregarded in computing the figure of merit.-[Letter, Sept. 8, 84-4064 A. G. O., 1884.] When an officer or man is transferred at any time during the target year, he will be accompanied by a certificate of his best scores made in his former command; and he will be taken up in his new organization with full credits attained in his last one, and will be disregarded in determining the figure of merit of the organization from which he was FLOUR RATION. The non-commissioned staff officers of the Army can only draw bread from the post bakery the same as other enlisted men.-[Letter, Sept. 8, 84-3941. G. O., 1884.] FORMATION OF A BATTALION COMPOSED OF FRACTIONS OF DIFFERENT REGIMENTS. When a single battalion is made up of fractions of two or more regiments, there is no interval between the companies, and they are arranged as prescribed in the last clause of paragraph 365, page 152, Infantry Tactics. [Letter, Sept. 10, 84–3919 A. G. O., 1884 ] REGAN'S MANUAL OF GUARD DUTY. This work is not an authorized publication of the War Department, in the same sense as are the prescribed Regulations and Tactics.-[ Letter, Sept. 11, 84-4205 A. G. O., 1884.] MUSTER FOR EXTRA-DUTY PAY. The muster of a soldier for any arrears of extra-duty pay earned in a hospital at another post must be made on the rolls of his company and not on the rolls of the hospital at the post to which he may have been transferred.-[Letter, Sept. 12, 84-7375B 4. G. O., E. B., 1884.] PURCHASES IN OPEN MARKET. The provisions as to purchase in open market in act of July 5, 1×84 (General Orders, No. 65, current series, from this office), do not apply to purchases of the regular supplies made for national cemeteries.- Letter, Sept. 16, 84-3881 A. G. O., 1884.] The purchase in open market of the needed spare parts of mowingmachines does not, as a rule, admit of competition, and need not, therefore, be reported for approval, as required for other purchases in open market by act of July 5, 1884 (General Orders, No. 65, current series, from this office).—[Letter, Sept. 24, 84-4135 A. G. O., 1884.] TACTICS. Companies on the skirmish line should not retain their battalion designation, but should be numbered from right to left. Bayonets should be fixed at the command "Rally by divisions," as the movement is prescribed for a battalion threatened by cavalry. In the "Rally on the battalion" bayonets should not be fixed by the skirmishers, unless the colonel orders his battalion to fix bayonets before ordering the "rally.”— [Letter, Sept. 18, 81-4192 A. G. O., 1884.] |