GENERAL ORDERS, 
No. 106. 
WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Adjutant General’s Office, 
Washington, April 28, 1863. 
1. A Board of five Officers (the Signal Officer and a Medical Officer 
of the Army being members) will be assembled in this city for the 
examination of officers now on Signal duty in the Army of the Poto- 
mac, the Middle Department, and the Departments of Washington 
and Virginia; and thereafter, such persons as may be authorized by 
the Secretary of War to report to the Board for examination as candi- 
dates for commissions in this Corps. The same Board will examine 
enlisted men of the signal parties on duty in the Department of Wash- 
ington, and such other candidates for enlistment in, or transfer to, tho 
Corps, as may be brought before it. 
2. As soon as practicable, the Colonel and the two Majors authorized 
by the act of March 3, 1863, shall be appointed. 
3. Immediately after the appointment of the Majors of the Signal 
Corps, auxiliary examining Boards, in each of which one of the 
Majors and a Medical Officer of the Army shall be members, will be 
appointed, for the examination of the officers now on Signal duty In 
the Army Corps and Departments of the South and West; and there- 
after, such other persons as may be authorized by the Secretary of 
War to report for examination as candidates for commission. 
4. The Commander of each Army Corps or Department in which 
the employment of Signal parties is now, or may be, authorized, will 
immediately appoint a Board of their officers, two of whom shall be 
officers now on Signal duty, and the third a Medical Officer, for the 
examination of enlisted men now on Signal duty who- are candidates 
for transfer to, or enlistment in, the Signal Corps; and, if necessary to 
complete the organization of the Signal parties in their command, 
such other persons as they may authorize to report for examination as 
candidates for enlistment. If the Army Corps forms a part of an 
Army, then orders will be subject to the approval of the Commanding 
General of that Army. 
* 5. The Board instituted by the 1st section will hold its sessions in 
the city of Washington, will adjourn from time to time according to 
the business before it, and be reassembled by the order of its President. 2 
It will call before it the officers to be examined by requisitions upon 
the Commanding Generals of the Armies or Departments in which 
they are serving; but, in order that no inconvenience to the service 
shall result, these requisitions shall be subject to the discretion of the 
Commanding General as to the time and order in which the officers 
called for shall report, care being taken that the officers to be with- 
drawn shall be replaced in advance, as far as practicable, by others 
who have passed satisfactory examinations. 
6. The Boards instituted by section 3 will report in succession at the 
Headquarters of the Army, Army Corps, or Departments in the Dis- 
tricts to which they may be assigned, and will bo subject to the dis- 
cretion of the Commanding Generals as to the time and place of 
meeting, and the order in which candidates are to be examined. 
7. Examining Boards will be governed by the following rules: 
First. Candidates for commissions shall be examined upon Beading, 
Writing, Composition, and Arithmetic; Elementary Chemistry, and 
the elementary branches of Natural Philosophy, Surveying, and To- 
pography; the use and management of Field Signals and Field Tele- 
graphs; and those who have served in the Acting Corps, upou the 
mode of conducting Signal parties in the field, and in the presence of 
the enemy, and upon rendering the proper papers and reports. 
Second. Candidates for warrants shall be examined upon Beading, 
Writing, Geography, and Arithmetic. 
Third. No person shall be recommended for appointment or enlist- 
ment in the Signal Corps who is not of good moral character, and 
physically competent for the duties. 
Fourth. The several examining Boards will adopt such forms of 
proceeding in questions upon the different branches of education enu- 
merated above, or employ such other methods of ascertaining the merits 
of the different candidates as may seem expedient, having due refer- 
ence to their mental and physical qualifications. 
8. The principal and auxiliary examining Boards will make to the 
Secretary of War, through the Signal Officer, weekly reports of the ex- 
aminations made by them, designating by name, regiment, age, nativity, 
&e., of the persons examined, the grade for which they are recom- 
mended, and their recent stauding, as determined by the examination, 
aud by their record of service. In the case of the auxiliary Boards 3 
directed by sections 3 and 4, these reports will be transmitted through 
the Commanding Generals of the Army or Department in which the 
examinations were made. 
9. As soon as the examinations of the auxiliary Boards have been 
completed, a revising Board, constituted as directed in the first sec- 
tion, with the addition of the Majors who were members of the Boards 
directed by the third section, will assemble in this city for the purpose 
of reviewing the action of the several examining Boards; determining 
the relative standing of the officers of each grade; the rules to be ob- 
served in the appointments to the grade of First and Second Lieuten- 
ants ; the classification of enlisted men; and making such other 
recommendations as may have been suggested by observation and 
experience as essential to a perfect organization of the Corps. 
10. Until the reports of the revising Board have been approved by 
the Secretary of War, the appointments in the Signal Corps will be 
limited to the Colonel and the two Majors, one Captain, two First 
Lieutenants, and four Second Lieutenants for each Army Corps or 
Department in which Signal parties have been or may be authorized; 
and the enlistments or transfers, to one Sergeant, two Privates of the 
first class, and four Privates of the second class. The appointments 
thus made to be temporary; and the permanent standing of the Offi- 
cers to be determined by the action of the President, upon the recom- 
mendations of the reviewing Board. 
11. In order to facilitate as much as possible the organization of the 
Corps, the Commanders of Army Corps and Departments are author- 
ized to transfer enlisted men, now employed on Signal duty who have 
passed satisfactory examinations, to the Signal Corps, copies of the 
muster and descriptive rolls of the men so transferred being sent to the 
Headquarters of the Corps in this city; and the Chief Signal Officers 
in each Army Corps or Department, are authorized to complete the 
Signal parties under their charge by the enlistment of a sufficient 
number of approved candidates: Provided, That all officers and men 
now on Signal duty, who may fail to pass satisfactory examinations, 
shall be returned to their regiments; and any officers and men retained 
in the service under the provisions of War Department General 
Orders, No. 9*2, who, in like manner, fail to pass satisfactory examina- 
tions, shall at once be discharged from the service of the United 4 
ates by the Commander of the Army or Department in which they 
are serving. 
12. The Chief Signal Officer in an Army Corps or Department is 
authorized to appoint, upon the recommendation of the examining 
Board, and subject to the approval of the Colonel of the Corps, the 
Sergeants authorized for the parties under his charge, and, upon a like 
recommendation and approval, to designate the privates of the first 
and second classes. 
13. Recruiting for the Signal Corps will be conducted under the 
rules prescribed for the regimental recruiting service. Enlistments 
will be made for the period of three years, or during the war; but 
enlisted men now on duty in the Signal Corps may re-enlist for the 
period of one or two years, and will be entitled to the benefits provided 
by the 18th section of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1863. 
By ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: 
E. D. TOWNSEND, 
Assistant Adjutant General.