Item No. 3141906

A handwritten 1865 general order written out by Major Theodore Read, staff member to General John Gibbon, commander of the Union Army’s 24th Corps. The order states the format in which absent men were to be reported by companies and regiments. It is signed by Read on behalf of Gibbon.

It is also signed by Captain George W. Hooker of Brigadier General Charles Devens’s 3rd Division. George White Hooker enlisted as a private in the 4th Vermont in September 1861. He rose quickly through the ranks and by August 1862 was first lieutenant of Company E. In the summer of 1864 he was promoted captain and attached to the adjutant general’s department, serving on Devens’s staff. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for action on September 14, 1862, at the Battle of South Mountain, where he “rode alone in advance of his regiment and captured a major and 116 men.”

The order was written on two pages of a letter sheet measuring about 7 3/4” x 9 3/4”. Creased at the original folds. The full transcript follows:

Head Quarters Twenty-fourth Corps
In the Field Va. Jan. 19th 1865

General Orders
No. 13

Hereafter on all applications for leaves of absence, the number of officers absent from the company and regiment will be stated under the following heads:
1st Absent with leave
2nd Absent without leave
3rd Absent Sick
4th Total absent

And on all applications for furloughs will be endorsed the number of men absent from the company and regiment as follows:
1st Absent on furlough
2nd Absent detached
3rd Absent without leave
4th Absent sick
5th Total present

All applications for furloughs for enlisted men must be made by the company commanders.
By Command of
Major General John Gibbon
(sd) Theodore Read
Major and A.A. Genl.

Head Quarters 3rd Division
24th Army Corps, March 8 1865
Official Copy
Geo. W. Hooker
Capt. & A.A.G.