Your attention is called to the requirements of the Army Regulations, paragraphs 1157 to 1164—Medical Regulations (1863), paragraphs 13 to 20, inclusive—and to the fact that you have failed to comply with them in not making the semi-annual return of the medical property which came into your hands while on duty with [Hospital No. 1, Raleigh, NC] during the half year ending [December 31, 1863].

All property for which you have given your receipts, you are held accountable for, and such as have come into your possession at any time during the above period for the above command, must be borne upon the return called for.

As your accounts are to be examined and will be finally settled by the Auditor of the Treasury, it is necessary that every invoice and receipt for medical property passing through your hands, and certificates and reports relating to property by which you desire to obtain credit, should be forwarded to this office promptly, as specified in the Regulations, and the return be regularly made up from those documents, and agree with them in every particular. Unless this is strictly observed by medical officers, much delay and difficulty will be experienced in the settlement of their accounts, and those which have not been properly rendered will be suspended, and the officer held liable for the value of the property unaccounted for.