*Recruiting* INSTRUCTIONS For Captain Jedediah Rodgers appointed to command a Troop of light dragoons in the Service of the United States. SIR, [strikethrough: If you accept the appointment of which I have informed you, you will late of] You are immediately to commence the recruiting service in the State of New York & Connecticut. The principal rendezvous will be at West-Point. You will recruit for the service of the Cavalry only — No foreigners are to be inlisted — None but active, healthy young men of good characters &morals are to be engaged. — Your recruits will be furnished by The Contractor at West Point with rations, barracks, barrack utensils, straw and fuel; and also with such necessary medicinal assistance as they may require. The recruiting service is sometimes abused, both as it respects the individuals recruited and the public at large, — that is, recruits are unwarily and unworthily entangled, contrary to their intentions: Such men generally desert the service, at some critical moment, or serve grudgingly, and set bad examples to others; or, unsuitable persons are engaged, who are constitutionally defective and unfit for the hardships incident to a military life. Although a recruiting officer may require peculiar talents to obtain uncommon success, yet it is in the power of every officer to conduct himself with candor, integrity and industry. In order therefore to avoid the errors of this business, the following instructions are to serve as the general rules and principles of your conduct: 1st. The recruits are to be inlisted for three years, unless sooner discharged. 2d. Each recruit is to receive a bounty of Eight Dollars; — but no part of this sum is to be advanced until the recruit shall have been fairly inlisted and sworn before a Magistrate, according to the form herein prescribed, and then only the said sum is to be advanced in such proportions as the judgment of the