127. To appoint from enlisted men, or cause to be enlisted, as many hospital stewards as the service may require, to be attached to the Medical Corps under such regulations as he may prescribe. (R. S., § 1180.) 128. To detail six officers from the Corps of Engineers, and any number of non-commissioned officers and privates not exceeding one hundred from the Battalion of Engineers, for the performance of signal duty, subject to examination and approval by a military board convened by himself. (R. S., § 1196.) 129. To establish regulations for examination of noncommissioned officers as to their qualifications for commissioned officers, who, if found qualified, shall be eligible for appointment as second lieutenants. (R. S., § 1214.) 130. To prescribe regulations from time to time for the examination of appointees to the Military Academy, who shall be required to be well versed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and to have a knowledge of the elements of English grammar, of descriptive geography, particularly that of the United States, and of the history of the United States. (R. S., § 1319.) 131. The Secretary of War is required to arrange the course of study at the Military Academy, in order that the cadets shall not be required to pursue their studies on Sunday; (R. S., § 1324;) and to exercise general supervision and charge over the institution through such officer or officers whom he may assign. (R. S., § 1331.) He may assign also a judge advocate of the army as Professor of Law in the institution. (Act June 6, 1874, Stats. 18, p. 60.) 132. He is required to organize a board of five members, to consist of three officers of the army and two persons from civil life, whose duty it shall be to adopt a plan of building for the military prison authorized to be established at Rock Island, Illinois, and to frame regulations be assigned him by the Secretary. Among these is the investigation of any claims which may be presented to the department. 94. Outside these several bureaus and divisions there are duties performed in the department by assignment to individual clerks. Certain of these clerks are designated as Clerk of Pardons and Commissions, and Passport Clerk. The former prepares and issues commissions to persons who have received appointment to office, receives and files applications for office, and prepares pardons to be issued by the President, and the correspondence relating to these subjects. The latter, viz., the Passport Clerk, receives applications for passports to foreign countries, and prepares such passports for execution under the seal of the Department of State. He is authorized by law to administer and attest all oaths required by law or regulations to be taken by or on behalf of applicants. It is his duty to carefully examine each application for a passport and the accompanying proofs, and to satisfy himself that the applicant is under the law entitled to the same. A passport is prohibited by law to any person not a citizen of the United States. There is also in the department a translator, by special provision of law, who performs his duties under order of the Secretary, the assistants, or the chief clerk. CHAPTER IV. THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR. 95. The second in order, as regards the time of creation, was the Department of War, provided for by act of August 7, 1789. Until the Navy Department was established, about ten years later, the Department of War had charge of both army and navy matters. 96. The head of this department is the Secretary of War. A chief clerk is provided for by law, who has supervision of the other clerks of the department, and a general oversight of the distribution of business, and of the mode in which it is to be transacted. 97. In the absence of the Secretary the chief clerk may be authorized by that officer to sign requisitions upon the Treasury Department, and other papers requiring the sig nature of the Secretary of War; and in case of a vacancy in the office of the latter, the chief clerk is invested by law with the custody of all records, books, and papers of the department. (R. S., § 215.) 98. This department is divided by law into the following military bureaus, each having its chief clerk, and other clerks varying in number according to the appropriation act or to assignment by the Secretary, and being presided over by the chief officer of the appropriate military department, viz.: The Office of the Adjutant-General. The Office of the Quartermaster-General. The Office of the Commissary-General. The Office of the Surgeon-General. The Office of the Inspector-General. The duties performed by these several bureaus will be treated of each in its appropriate place. I. THE SECRETARY OF WAR. 99. The Secretary of War is required to perform such duties as shall from time to time be enjoined on or intrusted to him by the President, relative to military commissions, the military forces, the warlike stores of the United States, or to other matters respecting military affairs, and to conduct the business of his department as the President may direct. (R. S., § 216.) 100. He is charged with the custody of the books, records, papers, furniture, fixtures, and other property appertaining to the department; and he is required to keep, in proper books, a complete inventory of all the property of the United States in the buildings, rooms, offices, and grounds occupied by him and under his charge. (R. S., §§ 197, 217.) 101. He is required to define and prescribe from time to time the kinds as well as the amount of supplies to be purchased by the Subsistence and Quartermaster's Departments of the army, and the duties and powers of those departments respecting such purchases. (R. S., § 219.) 102. He is required also to prescribe general regulations for the transportation of the articles of supply from the place of purchase to the several armies, garrisons, posts, and recruiting places, for the safe-keeping of such articles, and for the distribution of an adequate and timely supply of the same to the regimental quartermasters, and to such other officers as may by virtue of such regulations be intrusted with the same; and he is required to fix and make reasonable allowances for the store-rent and storage necessary for the safe-keeping of all military stores and supplies. (Id.) 103. He is required to take under his immediate control and supervision the transportation of troops, munitions of war, equipments, military property and stores throughout the United States. (R. S., § 220.) 104. The Secretary of War is required to provide for taking meteorological observations at the military stations in the interior of the continent, and at other points in the States and Territories, and for giving notice on the northern lakes and sea-coast, by magnetic telegraph and marine signals, of the approach and force of storms. (R. S., § 221.) 105. He is required to provide, in the system of observations and reports in charge of the chief signal officer of the army, for such stations, reports, and signals as may be found necessary for the benefit of agriculture and commerce. (R. S., § 222.) 106. He is authorized to establish signal stations at lighthouses and at such of the life-saving stations on the lake or sea-coast as may be suitably located, and to connect the same with such points as may be necessary, by means of a suitable telegraph line, in cases where no lines are in operation, to be constructed and worked under the direction of the chief signal officer of the army or of the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Treasury. (R. S., § 223.) 107. He is empowered, upon satisfactory proof of loss or destruction of a certificate of discharge by a non-commissioned officer or private soldier who served in the army of the United States in the late war against the rebellion, to furnish to such non-commissioned officer or soldier a |