GENERAL ORDERS, i          WAR DEPARTMENT,
                   >              Adjutant General's Office,
      No. 3.       )                Washington, January 3,  1863.
  The following Act of Congress is published for the information and
government of all concerned :

                        [Public—No. 5.]
AN ACT to  facilitate the discharge of disabled soldiers from the army,
       and the inspection of convalescent camps and hospitals.

  Be it enacted by the Senate aud House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be added to
the present medical corps of the army eight medical inspectors, who
shall, immediately after the passage of this  act, be appointed by the
President, by and with the advice and consent of  the Senate, without
regard to their rank when so selected, but with sole regard to  qualifi-
cations, and who shall  have  the  rank, pay,  and emoluments now
authorized by law to officers of that grade.
  Sec. 2. And be it further enacted,  That  the  officers of the medical
inspector's department shall be charged, in addition to the duties now
assigned to them by existing  laws, with the duty of making regular
and frequent  inspections of all  military  general hospitals and con.
valescent camps, and  shall, upon each such inspection,  designate to
the surgeon in charge of such hospitals or camps all soldiers who may
be, in their opinion,  fit  subjects for discharge from the  service, on
surgeon's certificate of disability, or sufficiently recovered to be returned
to their regiments for duty, and shall see  that  such soldiers are dis.
charged or so returned.  And the medical inspecting officers are hereby
empowered, under such regulations as may be hereafter established, to
direct the return to duty, or the discharge from service, as the case may
be,  of all soldiers designated by them.
  Approved December 27, 1862.

  By order of the  Secretary of War:

                                   E.  D. TOWNSEND,
                                      Assistant Adjutant General. 
v.