GENERAL ORDERS, )         WAR DEPARTMENT,               '£
                   >            Adjutant General's Office,
      No. 69.       )                 Washington, March 20, 1863.

  Paragraph 10  of General Orders, No. 36. of 1862, which authorizes
the chief medical officer in each city "to employ as cooks, nurses, and
attendants any convalescent, wounded, or feeble men, who can per-
form such duties, instead of giving them discharges," is hereby modified
as follows:
  At every U. S. General Hospital, the feeble and wounded men, unfit
for field duty, but not  entirely disabled, instead of being discharged,
will be organized and mustered in detachments, under the charge of the
officers acting as Military Commanders, who  will assign  men to them
from time to time, on the reports of the surgeons in charge of hospitals.
From these  Invalid Detachments the Military Commanders will make
details for provost, hospital, and other necessary guards; for clerks,
hospital attendants, nurses, cooks, and other "extra-duty''' men.
   The Invalid  Detachments will  be mustered and reported as detach-
ments, and will be paid on the Detachment Polls; but no extra pay will
be allowed in any case.
   The Detachment Rolls must show to what company and  regiment
each  man properly belongs,  and all assignments to  them must be
promptly reported to their company commanders.  They are not to be
dropped  from  the rolls of those companies,  but will be reported on
detached service from them.
   Should any of the men become fit for duty with their regiments, they
will be immediately sent to join them.
   In case of a want of non-commissioned officers to give efficiency to
the Invalid Detachments, lance appointments maybe made,  but with-
out increase of pay.

   By order of the  Secretary of War:

                                           L.  THOMAS,
                                               Adjutant General.

   Official:
Assistant  Adjutant  Gensral.