GENERAL ORDERS, 
No. 144. 
WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Adjutant General’s Office, 
Washington, May 22, 1863. 
The following Eules are prescribed for the guidance of Boards in 
examining applicants for commissions in Eegiments of colored 
troops: 
1. The Board will sit every day, except Sunday, from 9 o’clock a. m. 
to 5 o’clock p. m. The place of sitting to be provided by the Quarter- 
master Department, and public notice given. 
2. The Board will make to the Adjutant General, for record in the 
Bureau for Colored Troops, reports of all persons examined, whether 
approved or rejected; the reports will be made weekly, or oftener when 
specially called for. 
3. Each applicant must exhibit to the Board authority from the 
Adjutant General to„appear before it. Such authority will be given 
upon satisfactory recommendations of good moral character and stand- 
ing in the community in which the applicant resided; or, if in the 
military service, on testimonials from his Commanding Officers. All 
such recommendations will be filed in the Bureau for Colored Troops. 
4. Each applicant shall be subjected to a fair but rigorous examina- 
tion as to physical, mental, and moral fitness to command troops. 
5. The Board shall specify for what grade of commission the several 
applicants are fit; and shall also classify and number them according 
to merit or proficiency. 
6. Appointments to each grade shall only he made from the candi- 
dates approved by the Board, and in the order of merit recommended 
by it. 
7. The report of the Board, if adverse, shall be conclusive; and no 
person rejected by it shall be re-examined. 
8. Other instructions will be communicated to Boards, if required. 
By order of the Secretary of War: 
E. D. TOWNSEND, 
Assistant Adjutant General.