SANITARY COMMISSION. No. 61 GENERAL ORDER OF THE SANITARY COMMISSION EXECUTIVE SERVICE. 1. There shall be a Central Office for the executive service near the Central Office of the War Department, and a branch of the Ce'ntral Office at a point where communication can best be commanded with the chief sources of supply of goods contributed by the public for this service which are at the greatest distance from the Central Office, and with those portions of the army which will be best served therefrom. The portions thus to be in communication with the Branch Central Office shall be determined by the General Secretary, and shall form the Associate General Secretary's department of the executive service. 2. The Central Office shall be responsible for all the execu- tive service of the Commission, except as hereinafter pro- vided for, and shall be answerable to the Commission for the entire management and control of all agents employed in it; it shall also be charged with the daty of keeping full records of the whole executive service of the Commission, and of accounting for it to the Secretary of War when re- quired ; it shall also be charged with the preparation of all reports of the executive service for the Commission, for •) record or for publication; it shall also be charged with the duty of transmitting all orders or instructions of the Com- mission for the whole of its executive service. 3. There shall be an Assistant Secretary for the Branch Central Office, who shall be in charge of the records and correspondence of the department of the Associate General Secretary, and who shall be accountable therefor to the Cen- tral Office. It shall be the duty of this Assistant Secretary to take for office record and use copies, abstracts, or briefs of all official papers passing through the Branch Central Office. All official communications received at the Branch Central Office from the agents of the Commission with the army shall be sent as soon as they can be copied or briefed to the Central Office. Copies or memoranda o/ all or- ders or instructions given to the agents of the Commission from the Branch Central Office shall be sent to the Central Office by the next mail after they have been given. All important information of the operation of the Commission's agents, of large movements of goods for the Commission, and especially of battles and special relief operations in con- nection with battles, shall be transmitted to the Central Office briefly by telegraph as soon as received, and more fully by letter as soon as possible after their receipt by the Branch Central Office. 4. In all other respects, the Assistant Secretary for the Branch Central Office shall act under the instruction of the Associate General Secretary, and shall be his deputy in the Branch Central Office of the Commission, whenever the As- sociate General Secretary is absent therefrom. 5. The Associate General Secretary shall select, appoint, and assign to duty the agents of the Commission to be em- ployed with the army in the field of his department, and he 3 shall be charged with their immediate control and manage- ment, and shall be responsible for their compliance with the general instructions and rules given for the executive service of the Commission, and for their faithfulness and efficiency. He may remove any of them at will. He shall supply them with goods for the relief of the sick and wTounded, in such a manner as shall in his judgment most equitably distribute the means placed at his command for that purpose, rela- tively to the degrees of want not otherwise provided for, of the sick and wounded of the army in his department. 6. The Associate General Secretary shall be accountable for all goods received by the Commission or any of its agents in his department, whether gifts, transfers, or purchases. Ac- count shall be rendered monthly to the Central Office of all goods received and all goods issued in his depart- ment, for ordinary distribution to field, floating, or gen- eral hospitals, designating these, with the names of the persons becoming responsible for the goods when they have passed out of the control of the Commission's agents. He shall also render an account monthly, or oftener, of goods distributed in emergencies, giving estimates when exactness is impracticable, and stating enough of the circumstances to show why the particular account required for ordinary dis- tribution is impracticable. Goods issued for individual or special relief, or administered to the sick and wounded, con- valescents or disabled men, and for the assistance of those engaged in medical or relief service, shall be accounted for in the like general manner. 7. Between the 1st and the 15th of February and of May, of August and of November, there shall be prepared in the Branch Central Office, and transmitted to the Cen- tral Office, a statement of all the property of the Commission 4 in the Associate General Secretary's department, with an estimate of its value; a statement of all persons employed therein, in the service of the Commission, their respective stations and compensations, and an indication of the class of duty required of each; together with a full statement of all expenditures made in behalf of the Commission, clas- sified as shall be directed by the Central Office. Accom- panying these statements an estimate of expenditures to be made in behalf of the Commission in the department for the following quarter shall be furnished the Central Office, regard being had in this estimate to the general condition and prospects of the Commission's treasury, and to the pros- pects of the war in the department. 8. At each quarterly meeting the Central Office shall pre- sent to the Board a general report of the operations of the ex- ecutive service of the Commission; a statement of all the prop- erty in its possession, with an estimate of its value; a statement of all persons employed under pay in the service of the Com- mission; their respective stations, duties by classes and com- pensations; together with a classified statement of all expen- ditures made in behalf of the Commission in the preceding quarter. 9. At each quarterly meeting of the Board appropriations of money to be expended during the ensuing quarter in the execu- tive service of the Commission shall be made, under divisions and classifications of service, including an amount for contin- gencies which shall be at least fifteen per centum of the sum of the appropriations. 10. Remittances for the Executive Service, under these appro- priations, shall be made in sums not exceeding ten per cent, of the whole appropriation, by the Treasurer, upon the order of the General Secretary ; provided that no remittances shall be 0 made, except by order of the Executive Committee, until an account has been rendered from the Central Office of the ex- penditures from the second preceding remittance, and the same shall have been approved as authorized expenditures by the Executive Committee. 11. All expenditures not thus provided for shall be made only upon special appropriations of the Executive Committee. 12. A monthly report shall be made by the Central Office to the Executive Committee, showing the disposition of all the agents of the executive service, the date of the last ad- vices from each subdivision of them, together with informa- tion of the goods on hand, and ordered to each part of the army, the recent rate of issue, and the prospect of supply. 13. It shall be the duty of the Executive Committee to see that the undertakings entrusted to the management of the General Secretary, are administered as intended and pro- vided for by the Commission. They shall, when they see fit, make special appropriations to provide for exigencies not contemplated by the Board in its appropriations, or for deficiences in these appropriations for the purposes for which they were designed by the Board. 14. In case of the failure of the General or Associate General Secretary to provide for the accomplishment of the purposes entrusted to them by the Board, through ignorance, neglect or inefficiency, the Executive Committee may supercede them in any of their duties, reporting such action, and the orounds for it, to the Board at its first subsequent session. By order of the Commission : FRED. LAW OLMSTED, General Secretary. Washington, January 27//', 1863.