By direction of the President, Brigadier and Brevet Major-General Irvin McDowell is assigned to the command of the Department of the East.
The headquarters of the department will be transferred from Philadelphia to New York City.
By command of General Grant:
E.D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant-General.
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 55.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, July 28, 1868.
The following orders from the War Department, which have been approved by the President, are published for the information and government of the Army and of all concerned:
The commanding generals of the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Military Districts having officially reported that the States of Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida have fully complied with the acts of Congress known as the reconstruction acts, including the act passed June 22, 1868, entitled "An act to admit the State of Arkansas to representation in Congress," and the act passed June 25, 1868, entitled "An act to admit the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida to representation in Congress," and that, consequently, so much of the act of March 2, 1867, and the acts supplementary thereto as provides for the organization of military districts, subject to the military authority of the United States, as therein provided, has become inoperative in said States, and that the commanding generals have ceased to exercise in said States the military powers conferred by said acts of Congress: Therefore the following changes will be made in the organization and command of military districts and geographical departments:
I. The Second and Third Military Districts having ceased to exist, the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida will constitute the Department of the South, Major-General George G. Meade to command. Headquarters at Atlanta, Ga.
II. The Fourth Military District will now consist only of the State of Mississippi, and will continue to be commanded by Brevet Major-General A.C. Gillem.