Now I have all pages. Let me compile the full transcription. [War department] William Simmons Esq^r. Accountant of the Department of War [War department September 19^th 1798 / The Secretary of War / inclosing Recruiting / Instructions] War department September 19. 1798 Sir, I enclose you rules and regulations respecting the recruiting service which have been adopted by the President of the United States. As soon as the blanks in the fifteenth and sixteenth articles shall be filled up for any district, information thereof shall be given you — I am Sir Your obed^t serv^t James McHenry [marginalia: numerical notations] W^m. Simmons Esq^r. Accountant. [encl. Sept. 19, 1798, McHenry] By John Adams. President of the United States. Rules & Regulations. Respecting the Recruiting Service. 1. No indecent methods are allowed to encourage men into the service of the United States: and it is particularly forbidden to enlist any individual whiles in a state of intoxication 2. No individual is to be enlisted [Musicians excepted] who is not five five inches in height, for the Artillery who is not five feet six inches in height, for the Cavalry who is not less than five feet four inches in height, or more than five feet ten. Each recruit must not be less than eighteen or more than forty years old; unless he shall have served before in the army of the United States. nor of those who have served before shall there be more than eight admitted into a Troop or Company exceeding forty years old, nor exceeding forty six years. each recruit must also be healthy, robust, & without unsound legs, surry scald head or other infirmity that may render him unfit for service. 3. Natives of Character are always to be preferred for soldiers — Foreigners of good Reputation for Sobriety & Honesty, may be enlisted. but negroes Mulattoes or Indians, are not to be enlisted 4. No recruit is to be enlisted, or attested in any other manner than a Private Soldier — 5. Each recruits is to be enlisted for a [strikethrough: during the time of five years] [strikethrough: between the American United States and the [undecipherable]], to receive the Bounty of Twelve Dollars. but the payment of four dollars is to be defered: untill after he shall have arrived at the Head Quarters of his Regiment. and no part of the Bounty to which a recruit is entitled before joining his company or corps. is to be advanced: untill he shall have been sworn before a magistrate according to the form herein prescribed. The recruiting Officer will be careful to regulate the advance, agreeable to law. 6. Every recruit, at the time of his inlisting, or within six days afterwards is to be brought before the Justice of the Peace or the chief Magistrate, of any County or Corporation, not being an Officer of the Army, or where recourse cannot he had to the Civil Magistrate, before the Judge Advocate to be sworn. In their attestations, the day of their inlistments, as well as the day and place of their attesting must be distinctly specified according to the form annexed. (N^o. 1.) The utmost care is to be taken to fill up the Blanks, in the attestations agreeable to directions from the Inspector General, correctly & legibly. No recruit is to be sent to his Regiment corps, or General rendezvous, on any pretence whatsoever, whose inlistment & attestations have not been completely and finially executed. and all the attestations of recruits raised in every two weeks. unless otherwise ordered by the Inspector General are to be invariably transmitted to the Officer Commanding the district — These attestations must always be taken in the presence of & Certified by a Commissioned Officer, & must be forwarded to the Inspector General (through the Commanding Off. of a regimental circle where their is one) and must be sent by the Inspector General to the Department of War. The terms of any injoiment which may be subscribed by recruits must conform to the tenor of these attestations. The injunctions of Section 1^st. article 1, of the articles of War are to be observed to each recruit. 8. The recruiting Parties will be distributed in districts, & a field Officer when one can be so employed without injury to the Service, stationed in each district. The field or other Officer appointed to this duty, will have the command of all recruiting parties, in his district. He will give a conditional approval of the Recruits, whom he may judge fit for service, except in cases where regiments are so quartered, as to render it in point of distance equally convenient for the recruits to be sent to their respective head Quarters. Each district will be divided, into Sub-districts or quarters corresponding with the number of Companies to be raised therein, and whenever the Inspector General shall direct, the districts may be united into regimental Circles each circle to be under the Superintendance of the Commandant of the Regiment. 9. The senior Officer in each Quarter shall report weekly to the Officer of the district, the number & strength of the parties therein, specifying the names of the Commissioned Officers belonging to them, and whether they have been absent during the remainder of the week; the number of recruits under his Command, with the names of those inlisted since the last returns, & a description of their persons; the bounty advanced them, their names, accotrements & [undecipherable] delivered, [undecipherable] and the incidents that has taken place during the week: the whole to be drawn up according to the form annexed N^o 2. At the foot of each return, which shall bear the name or names of any foreigner or foreigners by birth, their shall be, a note or notes specifying that he is still an alien or how when & where, each such foreigner became a Citizen, if he shall have become one. While the districts are united in Circles, the returns shall be transmitted through the respective Commandants of Circles, & shall be open to their Inspection. 10. He shall also keep a recruiting book in which he shall record 1^st. The Name, Trade, Place of Birth, age, Size, Complexion and other particulars descriptive of each recruit — 2^d The money advanced every recruit whether on account of bounty or pay. — 3^d The articles of Cloathing arms & Accoutrements delivered to each recruit, & the day on which each article shall have been delivered. 11. No party for the purpose of recruiting is ever to be detached from the head Quarters of the recruiting party without a Commissioned Officer or faithfull non Commissioned Officer: and no Officer is to leave his station even for one day without reporting it to the Commanding Officer of the district, nor to be absent therefrom for more than one day, without the previous permission of the said Officer. 12. Courts Martial, to consist of three Commissioned Officers, may be ordered at the discretion of the Officer Commanding a regimental circle or a district for the trial of such Offences as shall be committed by the Non Commissioned Officers & Soldiers of the recruiting parties under his Command, and which would be cognizable by a regimental court martial the said Officers to decide upon the sentences of such Court Martials and direct the punishments awarded to be executed or remitted as he shall thinks expedient — 14. All orders will pass through & from, the Inspector General to the Commandants of circles, where they are such, & if not to the Commandants of districts, specifying the Returns other than those mentioned they are to send, & to whom — all returns and reports are to come from the Officers commanding Circles, when their are such, and if not from the Officers Commanding Districts and nothing direct from the recruiting Officers — 15. To indemnify Officers commanding regimental circles or districts for the Traveling expenses, to which they are liable in visiting the Recruiting Quarters under their respective Commands, an allowance of [undecipherable] a day each in addition to their pay, without subtraction from their rations or forrage will be made them and the actual expense they are at for Stationary Certified upon Oath or Affirmation will be reimbursed. Recruiting Officers will be allowed the actual expense they are at for Stationary & Postages of Letters to be Certified upon oath or Affirmation. 16. The Officer Commanding a District, will be allowed to appoint a Subaltern Officer (not employed on the recruiting service) to do the duty of Adjutant in a District, with an allowance of a day each. A Surgeons mate will be placed under the order of each Officer Commanding a district, to examine the recruits when brought for Inspection, & to give such medical assistance as may be in his power, to the several recruiting parties within his district. 17. All recruiting Officers, & parties are to be subject to the Control of the Officer appointed to superintend their district. 18. Whenever a Recruiting Officer shall send any recruits to the General Recruiting Rendezvous within his district, or when sent to join their Regiments or Corps he must transmit an account in writing to the proper Officer, stating what bounty has been paid, and to what period such recruits have received their pay & subsistence. 19. When Recruits abscond or refuse to go before a magistrate to be attested within the time prescribed, an attested certificate of that fact is to be immediately sent to the Officer Commanding in the district in order to its being transmitted to the Inspector General or Secretary of War, and also to the head Quarters of the regiment or corps, as no allowance will be made to the recruiting Officer for recruits so absconding or refusing to go before a magistrate and afterwards returned as Deserters. although they should be sent under an escod to their regiment or corps or general rendezvous. unless such certificate shall have been previously received. 20. The Officer that inlists a recruit who on joining his regiment or corps, or upon inspection by the proper Officer, Shall be found to labor under any disability which existed & might have been Known before his enlistment, & incapacitates him from performing the duties of a Soldier, shall reimburse to the United States all bounty or advances, he may have paid to such recruit. And the proof that the disability accrued after the entistment shall lie upon the Officer. 21. No Recruit is to be permitted to keep in his possession, after being sworn. any clothing except that which he may receive from the Public. The Officer is therefore to oblige him to dispose of his private cloathing emediatley, or to take the keeping of it upon him self till an opportunity offers to sell it for account of the recruit. 22. No recruit is to be allowed to absent himself from his quarters till such time, as he has proved himself faithful, without a Corporal or trusty private to attend him. 23. Each recruit after being sworn is to be attached to a squad, each squad is to consist of a number sufficient to form a mess who must live together and be under the inspection & command of a Sergeant or Corporal. ...... 24. The Officer will regulate the hours of eating & will not suffer the Corporal, or any of the Squad to be absent from meals. 25. Every Recruiting Officer shall Call the Roll of his recruits to be called 3 times a day. Viz^t. at nine Oclock in the morning at noon & at Sun setting. 26. The purposes to which recruits apply their money, ought to be attended to it will give indications to the Officers of their dispositions. — 27. No Recruiting Officer is to promise a recruit that he shall be any Non Commissioned Officer, but he is permitted to empower any recruit to act as a Non Commissioned Officer to a squad, or to the first or second class herein after mentioned untill the recruits shall join the Companies or regiments to which they are destined for the purpose of giving such recruits to shew by his conduct, whether he is qualified for promotion when it can take place in the course of Service. 28. The Artificers to be enlisted must be of the following trades viz^t. Carpenters, Wheel Wrights Armourers. — Recruiting Officers will receive written instructions, as to the number of each kind they may inlist as such. — No Person to be inlisted for an Artificier who has not served a Regular apprenticeship to his trade, and who cannot produce a good character from two reputable citizens for sobriety & Industudy, and who will not agree that he may on his arrival at the corps for which he is destined, be reduced to the rank & pay of a private, if it shall appear that he is disqualified for the purpose for which he is inlisted. 29. Every recruiting Officer will cause his recruits, to be separated into two Classes, and will begin to instruct them emediatley after being sworn, — The first Class to consist of those recruits who have learned the step & managments of their arms. — The new recruits to form the Second Class and be instructed in their positions to march, and in the manual exercise at least once every day (Sundays excepted) by a Skilful Sergeant, Corporal or Soldier. Instructions may be given to the recruits in the Second Class, in Quarters, on Parade or under Cover in Cover in bad weather. first one by one, than two by two, & lastly by parties. But they are not to be taught the management of their arms till after they have been habituated to the different positions & [strikethrough: steps] ...commencing by the simplest & progressively advancing to the most Complex. When the Officer shall judge a recruit disqualified to pass to the first class he will give orders accordingly. The exercise of the first class will be directed & superintended by the recruiting Officer and be the same as is usual for the perfecting of a company for actual service. 30. Each recruiting [strikethrough: Officer] shall transmit monthly to the Officer of the district a duplicate receipt signed by each recruit for the bounty he shall have received within that period. This regulation is to be strictly observed till the recruits have joined their respective companies, after which it is not allowable for the Officers to make them any payment on account of their bounty. It is to be understood also that no credit will be allowed to a recruiting Officer in the settlement of his accounts, which is not substantiated by such receipts thus transmitted; and that whatever part of the bounty remains due to a recruit on the union with his corps or company, shall not be paid by the recruiting Officer, but to be stated in the first pay roll after his arrival & paid to him at the same time as his pay. 31. The Officer commanding each district, will receive & be charged in the first instance with all the monies which shall be required within his district for the recruiting service. He will using a sound discretion distribute such portions of the same from time to time to the Officers of the said recruiting parties as the Service shall demand, exacting from such recruiting Officers a punctual settlement on correct vouchers at the proper periods. 32. The Officer commanding each district is required to account for all monies he may have received every three months viz^t. on the 31 Day, March 30^th June. 30^th September & 31^st of December. 33. The Commanding Officer of each will sign returns for the issues of all rations and other necessary supplies for the Troops and on the saturday of each week, the returns made in the week are to be taken up & one general return made out & signed for the rations received in the course of the week noting the daily issues. On the desertion of a recruit besides the usual exertion made and means to be employed on such occasions, the recruiting Officer will transmit as soon as possible, a description of the deserter to the field Officer of the district and will cause all description of deserters that may be sent to him to be entered in a book kept for that purpose. and will use his endeavours to discover & apprehend all deserters. 34. The Officers commanding districts will on the first monday of each month make, according to the form annexed (N^o 3,) a return of the recruits enlisted within the preceding month. with the several sums advanced them & remitted them to the respective recruiting Officer within the same time — This return shall contain all the particulars of broken periods, dates & incumbrances necessary to be inserted in the Muster Rolls. 35. All officers engaged in new levies or raising men for the service of the United States are to conform themselves, to the foregoing regulation in all points, not otherwise directed by special order from the President of the United States through the Secretary of War. Given at the War Office of the United States in the City of Philadelphia in this twenty seventh day of August 1798. sign^d & James McHenry (Finis)