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75 [stamp] 510. A.G.O. [left margin] Brigadier General E. D. Townsend, Adjutant General of the Army, Washington, D. C.

General:

         I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of May 21 ' 73., in which you state the fact that the Descriptive List of Deserters from the 10th Infantry, for the month of March received at your office, shows eighty five desertions for that month.  You also state the desire of the Secretary of War, that an investigation be made that the cause of so large a number of desertions may be discovered, with a view of applying whatever remedy may be necessary.
         By referring to the Regimental Return of the 10th Infantry, for March 1873., I find that seventy three of the desertions referred to, were from a detachment of Recruits enroute to the Regiment from Newport Barracks, Ky., and that these desertions occurred before the detachment reached the Regiment.  The regimental administration therefore cannot in any respect be held responsible for them.  The causes of these desertions will be found - I think in the history of the journey of this detachment from Newport Barracks, Ky., to