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to tell me what staff and non-commissioned staff officers are allowed to a battalion of six
companies or less?

I have received the greatest assistance from the officers under my command, and the
quiet and good order now prevailing in the town is due to the Provost-Marshal, John B.
Brooke, and to that excellent soldier, Captain J. Louis Smith, commanding the provost-
guard.

I hope you received my letter relative to them ; also one requesting the appointment
of Mr. McHenry Howard as ordnance officer on my staff, he being an officer of .merit
and aide-de camp to the late Brigadier-General C. S. Winder. Some three weeks since
General Lee sent me over three hundred paroled prisoners (Confederate), to be kept in camp
until exchanged, and as it required an officer of experience to keep them from wandering
off, I detailed First Lieutenant Wilson C. Nicholas for that purpose, thinking he had a
commission. He has taken remarkably good care of them, but the other day I received
Special Orders No. 232. stating his resignation as drill master had been accepted. I earnestly
recommend he may be again appointed to that or some other position in the Provisional
Army — First Lieutenant or Captain.

I am, with great respect, your obedient servant.

GEORGE H. STEUART, Commanding Post.

[INDORSEMENT.]

OCTOBER 21, 1862.

Inform him that after the first election in the Maryland troops, like others, the promo-
tion will be by seniority, unless a board pronounces the next officer incompetent. A battalion
of six companies has a Lieutenant-Colonel and Major; a battalion of five or less has a Major
only. A Quartermaster is allowed, who acts also as commissary. The Adjutant is detailed
from the subaltern officers.

G. W. R.

Upon receipt of the above indorsement General Steuart ordered an election,
and Captain James R. Herbert was chosen Major, and First Lieutenant F. C.
Duvall was elected Captain, Charles W. Hodges was promoted to First Lieu-
tenant, Thomas C. Tolson to Senior Second, and Joseph W. Barber was elected
to fill the vacancy thus created.

In November General George H. Steuart was ordered to withdraw from
Winchester, and the Maryland battalion was temporarily assigned to the command
of General William E. Jones, who had just been appointed to Munford's Brigade
of cavalry. General Jones received the Second Maryland in the vicinity of
Strasburg, and until January 2. 1863, it was moved from point to point in the
valley, as circumstances required.