12, assuming command and naming all the heads of staff departments and bureaus as members of my staff, adding to my then three aides, Colonels McCoy, Dayton, and Audenried, the names of Colonels Comstock, Horace Porter, and Dent, agreeing with President Grant that the two latter could remain with him till I should need their personal services or ask their resignations.
I was soon made aware that the heads of several of the staff corps were restive under this new order of things, for by long usage they had grown to believe themselves not officers of the army in a technical sense, but a part of the War Department, the civil branch of the Government which connects the army with the President and Congress.
In a short time General John A.Rawlins, General Grant's former chief of staff, was nominated and confirmed as Secretary of War; and soon appeared this order: HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, WASHINGTON, March 27, 1869.
General Orders No.

28: The following orders received for the War Department are published for the government of all concerned: WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, March 26, 1869.
By direction of the President, the order of the Secretary of War, dated War Department, March 5, 1869, and published in General Orders No.

11, headquarters of the army, Adjutant-General's Office, dated March 8, 1869, except so much as directs General W.T.
Sherman to assume command of the Army of the United States, is hereby rescinded.
All official business which by law or regulations requires the action of the President or Secretary of War will be submitted by the chiefs of staff corps, departments, and bureaus to the Secretary of War.
All orders and instructions relating to military operations issued by the President or Secretary of War will be issued through the General of the Army.
JOHN A.

RAWLINS, Secretary of War.
By command of General SHERMAN: E.D.TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General.
Thus we were thrown back on the old method in having a double--if not a treble-headed machine.

Each head of a bureau in daily consultation with the Secretary of War, and the general to command without an adjutant, quartermaster, commissary, or any staff except his own aides, often reading in the newspapers of military events and orders before he could be consulted or informed.