Mexico until otherwise ordered, at the discretion of Major General I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Adjutant General. No. 21. ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, GENERAL: Captain Mason's company mounted riflemen will embark at Baltimore the 3d of September for the army in Mexico, to serve temporarily on foot with the 2d regiment of infantry, as you will see by the captain's instructions, of which I respectfully enclose a copy. It will be seen that provision is made for the mounting of the company at your discretion, whenever the means and the opportunity may be afforded you. I am, general, very respectfully, &c., Major General Z. TAYLOR, R. JONES, Matamoras, Mexico. Adjutant General. [The following is a copy of the letter to Captain Mason referred to in the above letter.] ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, CAPTAIN: You will hold your company in readiness to embark for the army in Mexico, as soon after the 2d of September as transportation can be provided for the quartermaster. The company will be armed and equipped for active service on foot with the 2d infantry, until means and opportunity may enable Major General Taylor to direct that it be mounted. If you arrive at Point Isabel before the infantry, wait their arrival, and report to the officer in command for temporary duty with it; but if the contrary, follow in the same direction, and join either battalion that you may fall in with. I am, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, To Captain S. T. MASON, R. JONES, Mounted rifle regiment, Fort McHenry, Md. NOTE.-Consult with Colonel Belton as to the expediency of paying off your company before they embark; some question of the public good is to be considered in determining the measure. R. JONES, Adjutant General. No. 22. ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, August 31, 1846. GENERAL: Your communication of the 10th instant from Camargo (No. 73) has this day been received, and submitted to the general-in-chief and Secretary of War. The departure of the 2d regiment of infantry from Newport, Kentucky, and Fort Columbus, for the army in Mexico, has been delayed no longer than necessary to fill up the companies with recruits to a respectable standard. Both battalions will embark and proceed to their destination the 2d proximo, as you will see by the instructions of the 21st instant, of which you were duly apprized at the time. The regiment in the aggregate, it is hoped, will be about 650 strong. In addition to the nine companies of the 2d infantry, Captain Mason's company, and a detachment of Captain Walker's company (C) mounted rifle regiment, under Lieutenant McLane, will embark at Baltimore on the 3d of September for Point Isabel, for active service with the army in Mexico, as you will see by the instructions to the company commanders of the 24th and 26th, of which copies were duly forwarded at the time. These companies will be mounted at the earliest day practicable-probably sooner than they could receive horses if they were concentrated at Jefferson barracks, where the regiment is to be organized and equipped. Their service with the 2d infantry on foot, therefore, is only temporary, and of course does not impair their right to cavalry pay for the time being, any more than the fact of their remaining at Jefferson barracks, or elsewhere, without horses, while undergoing for a month or two the necessary course of preparatory instruction before receiving them. Captain Walker ís already in Mexico, and under your orders, and it will be for you to direct when he will join his company in the regular army. The authority communicated in my letter of the 17th of July, relative to Brevet Brigadier General Worth appointing Lieutenant Lee his aid-de-camp, extends, of course, to the appointment of his successor, Lieutenant Pemberton. I am, general, very respectfully, &c., Major General Z. TAYLOR, R. JONES, United States Army, Camargo, Mexico. 470 No. 23. ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, September 12, 1846. GENERAL: Before the receipt, on the 5th instant, of your letter of August 14, Captain Taylor, 1st artillery, was en route with some recruits and horses for his company in Mexico, his battery having been sent by sea. horses may probably not be required for Captain Taylor's comBy your letter, it is perceived that these pany; but it is thought that their arrival in Mexico may not be inopportune. As they are mostly of good quality and many of them already trained, should they be not needed for the artillery service, it is not doubted that they will be required to remount the three companies of the 2d dragoons about to be organized at Point Isabel, as you will have seen by "special orders" No. 83, dated the 2d instant, which was forwarded to you at its date. Captain Taylor reports this day that he arrived at Newport, Kentucky, with forty horses, on the 7th instant, and that he should proceed on his route as soon as he procured the additional horses required for his battery, which would be in a few days. I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. JONES, Major General Z. TAYLOR, Commanding, &c., Camargo, Mexico. Adjutant General. No. 24. ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, September 15, 1846. GENERAL: Learning informally that the suggestions of the general-in-chief, communicated in my letter of September 1, 1845, relative to the assignment of Lieutenant Colonel Payne, of the 4th, and Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Childs, of the 3d artillery, may have influenced your arrangement of the artillery companies into battalions, &c., beyond the period contemplated at the time, I am desired to say that the arrangements intimated were not intended to be permanent. The general-in-chief regrets, therefore, (if, indeed, it be so,) that you regard the suggestions communicated in September last at all abiding, as the circumstances of the service. have altogether changed since the army (now no longer the "army of occupation") was stationed at Corpus Christi. It was not doubted, therefore, that your arrangements of the artillery commands, whether as infantry or with batteries, would be made only with reference to the requirements of the service in the field. I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. JONES, Adjutant General. Major General Z. TAYLOR, Commanding, &c., Camargo, Mexico. No. 25. ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, September 21, 1846. GENERAL: It may be necessary that prompt action should sometimes be given to the proffered resignations of officers of volunteer corps. Under ordinary circumstances, the resignation of a commission should be tendered to the authority which conferred it; but in the case of volunteer officers in the service of the United States, it is thought that during the period for which they are engaged the executive of a State cannot accept their resignation without the consent of the President. With a view to avoid delays and embarrassments growing out of this subject, I am instructed by the Secretary of War to say it has been deemed proper to give you discretionary authority to discharge volunteer officers and men whenever, in your judgment, the interest of the service may be promoted thereby. Notice of the discharge of commissioned officers should be reported to the War Office, and to the governor of the particular State. Vacancies which may be created must be filled, agreeably to the fifth section of the act of the 13th of May last; but as there may be good and sufficient reasons for not receiving and mustering into service some of the candidates who may be offered for promotion, you will please to exercise a sound discretion in the matter. With respect to the additional 2d lieutenant of volunteers, authorized by the act of June 18th, the Secretary of War's instructions upon the subject were communicated in my letter of August 20th. The great number of volunteer officers who have, so soon after their arrivals on the frontiers, left the army on furlough, has attracted the notice of the department, and I am desired to suggest for consideration whether the good of the service may not, in many cases, require their discharge altogether, rather than to be allowed to be absent for so considerable a portion of the short period (12 months) for which they engaged to serve. I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. JONES, Adjutant General. Major General Z. TAYLOR, Commanding the army in Mexico, Camargo. No. 26. ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, GENERAL: I respectfully forward, for your information, a copy of my letter of this date to Major General Patterson, the officer charged by the Secretary of War with the immediate command and conduct of the expedition soon to move upon the department of Tamaulipas, pursuant to the instructions of the War Department of the 22d instant. You will perceive that not more than seven companies can be drawn from the seaboard to make up the compliment of the regular force to join the division about to be organized for the invasion of the enemy's country in the direction of Tampico. The other three companies referred to, to complete the regiment of regulars, (to be composed of companies of several regiments,) will, it is presumed, be taken from the stations on the lower Rio Grande, as intimated by the Secretary of War, in his letter of instructions, and be designated at your head-quarters. Knowing the value of experienced officers of the regular army to command important stations and depots left in your rear, the general-in-chief instructs me to say that Colonel Crane will soon be ordered to Mexico for such sedentary command, (as he is not able to take the field in the saddle,) with instructions to report to you from Matamoras or Camargo, where he will await your orders. Brevet Colonels McIntosh and Payne will receive like orders as soon as they may be able to travel without inconvenience to their wounds, which are not yet quite healed. The last communications received from your head-quarters are letters Nos. 80, 81, 82, 83, and 84; "orders" Nos. 108, 109, 110, 111, and 112; " special orders" Nos. 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, and 135. I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Major General Z. TAYLOR, R. JONES, Commanding, &c., Camargo, Mexico. [The following is a copy of the letter to General Patterson referred to in the foregoing letter.—R. J.] ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, September 28, 1846. GENERAL: I am instructed by the general-in-chief to inform you that seven companies of artillery are under orders to proceed to Point Isabel, which is all the regular force that can now be drawn from the seaboard to join the expedition soon to advance upon the department of Tamaulipas, with the command of which you have been charged by the Secretary of War, as seen in his instructions of September 22d. The other three companies required to make up the complement of the regiment of regulars, intended for this expedition, it is presumed, must be drawn from the force on the lower Rio Grande, as intimated by the Secretary of War in his instructions to Major General Taylor, a copy of which was forwarded at its date (September 22d) for your information. Some of the seven companies are all recruits; and of the rest, more than |