GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, No. 3. Washington, January 14, 1867. Order to facilitate return of soldiers on furlough. The numerous cases of soldiers on furlough who report at points far distant from their stations, without the means of traveling further, demand that officers should use a proper discrimination in granting furloughs. The men must either become deserters in fact or must receive aid from the Government in returning to their companies. Department commanders are authorized to send men reporting under such circumstances to a military post or depot, when there is a probability that they can soon be sent with a detachment to the vicinity of their posts. In special cases, where it shall seem most judicious, Department commanders, in the exercise of a sound discretion, may order transportation tickets to be purchased by the Quartermaster for furloughed soldiers; and where this is done a special report of the amount paid for such transportation will be made by letter to the company commander, who will charge the same against the soldier's pay on the next musterday. The same amount, together with the date when the soldier reported himself, will be entered on his furlough. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General. OFFICIAL: Assistant Adjutant General. GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, No. 4. Washington, January 14, 1867. General Orders, No. 95, of 1866, is amended to read as follows: Paragraph 895, Revised Regulations of the Army, is hereby modified to read as follows: 895. The legal punishments for soldiers by sentence of a court martial, according to the offence and the jurisdiction of the court, are: death; imprisonment; imprisonment on bread and water diet; solitary confinement; hard labor; forfeiture of pay and allowances; discharges from service; reprimands; and, when non-commissioned officers, reduction to the ranks. Periods of confinement, except in aggravated cases, sball not exceed six months; and in repeated cases of desertion, shall not exceed one year; but in cases of homicide, robbery, rape, and in aggravated cases of injury to persons or property, may be imposed at the discretion of the court. Solitary confinement, or confinement on bread and water, shall not exceed fourteen days at a time, with intervals between the periods of such confinement not less than such periods, and not exceeding eighty-four days in any one year. Enlisted men, for purely military offences, shall not be sentenced to confinement in a State prison or penitentiary; and when soldiers, for other than military offences, are sentenced to confinement in a penitentiary, they will be dishonorably discharged the service in the order promulgating the proceedings of the court. Ball and chain shall not be used as a punishment. Ordnance sergeants and hospital stewards, though liable to discharge, shall not be reduced; nor are they to be tried by regimental or garrison courts martial, unless by special permission of the department commander. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF War: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General. OFFICIAL: Assistant Adjutant General. |