.NjE.MTY2Ng

with correctness & precision. The commander in chief has the fullest confidence in the honour & active exertions of the officers in general & in the good order & subordination of the citizens in the ranks; & that they will unite their efforts in carrying into effect the established system of discipline.

Among those details the commander in chief will suggest to the superior officers the utility of always appointing a respectable officer to preside at elections, whose duty it shall be to regulate the same, & report his proceedings to the officer from whom he received his appointment. In this way, many regularities will be avoided which might otherwise occur in these transactions.

The muster role of a company of men is the proper evidence of the active assistance of the company; & in order to identify & render valid this essential record it should be signed or endorsed by the commanding officer with his name & office.

The adjutant of each regiment is required to keep an exact roster of the officers of it: he is also required to keep a record of the noncommissioned officers: these documents should be kept distinctly but nearly in the same form. Blanks will be furnished at the proper office for both of them. All returns should be signed by the commanding officers of corps. The annual returns of regiments & brigades should not only be signed by them, but by the adjutants & brigades should not only be signed by them, but by the adjutants & brigade majors.

The Commonwealth being at considerable expence in furnish[ing] the laws & orderly books for recording orders, it might have been presumed that due care would be taken to preserve them to the corps to which they belong, but experience has shown that in very