Ordered by the President: EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 8, 1863. Whereas on the 13th day of November, 1862, it was ordered that the Attorney-General be charged with the superintendence and direction of all proceedings to be had under the act of Congress of the 17th of July, entitled "An act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, and to seize and confiscate the property of rebels, and for other purposes, in so far as may concern the seizure, prosecution, and condemnation of the estate, property, and effects of rebels and traitors, as mentioned and provided for in the fifth, sixth, and seventh sections of the said act of Congress; and Whereas since that time it has been ascertained that divers prosecutions have been instituted in the courts of the United States for the condemnation of property of rebels and traitors under the act of Congress of August 6, 1861, entitled "An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes," which equally require the superintending care of the Government: Therefore It is now further ordered by the President, That the Attorney-General be charged with superintendence and direction of all proceedings to be had under the said last-mentioned act (the act of 1861) as fully in all respects as under the first-mentioned act (the act of 1862). By the President: EDW. BATES, Attorney-General. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Whereas by the twelfth section of an act of Congress entitled "An act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes," approved July 1, 1862, it is made the duty of the President of the United States to determine the uniform width of the track of the entire line of the said railroad and the branches of the same; and Whereas application has been made to me by the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Railroad Company, a company authorized by the act of Congress above mentioned to construct a branch of said railroad, to fix the gauge thereof: Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, do determine that the uniform width of the track of said railroad and all its branches which are provided for in the aforesaid act of Congress shall be 5 feet, and that this order be filed in the office of the Secretary of the Interior for the information and guidance of all concerned. Done at the city of Washington, this 21st day of January, A. D. 1863. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. PROCLAMATION. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas objects of interest to the United States require that the Senate should be convened at 12 o'clock on the 4th of March next to receive and act upon such communications as may be made to it on the part of the Executive: Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, have considered it to be my duty to issue this my proclamation, declaring that an extraordinary occasion requires the Senate of the United States to convene for the transaction of business at the Capitol, in the city of Washington, on the 4th day of March next, at 12 o'clock at noon on that day, of which all who shall at that time be entitled to act as members of that body are hereby required to take notice. Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at Washington, the 28th day of February, A. D. 1863, and of the Inde[SEAL.] pendence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. SPECIAL MESSAGES. WASHINGTON, March 5, 1863. To the Senate of the United States: For the reasons stated by the Secretary of War, I present the nomination of the persons named in the accompanying communication for confirmation of the rank which they held at the time they fell in the service of their country. The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, March 5, 1863. SIR: The following-named persons having fallen in battle after having received appointments to the grades for which they are herein nominated, I have the honor to propose that their names be submitted to the Senate for confirmation of their rank, as a token of this Government's approbation of their distinguished merit. This has been the practice of the Department in similar cases, brevet nominations and confirmations having been made after the decease of gallant officers. M P-VOL VI-II To be major-generals. Brigadier-General Philip Kearny, of the United States Volunteers, July 14, 1862. (Killed in the battle of Chantilly.) Brigadier-General Israel B. Richardson, of the United States Volunteers, July 4, 1862. (Died of wounds received at the battle of Antietam.) Brigadier-General Jesse L. Reno, of the United States Volunteers, July 18, 1862. (Killed in the battle of South Mountain.) To be brigadier-general. Captain William R. Terrill, of the Fifth United States Artillery, September 9, 1862. (Killed in the battle of Perryville.) I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. To the Senate of the United States: WASHINGTON, March 5, 1863. For the reasons stated by the Secretary of War, I present the nomination of the persons named in the accompanying communication for confirmation of the rank of major-general, in which capacity they were acting at the time they fell in battle. The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, March 5, 1863. SIR: The following-named persons having fallen in battle while performing the duty and exercising command as major-generals, a rank which they had earned in the service of their country, I have, the honor to propose that their names be submitted to the Senate for confirmation, as a token of the Government's appreciation of their distinguished merit. This is in accordance with the practice in similar cases, brevet nominations and confirmations having been made after the decease of gallant officers. To be major-generals of volunteers. Brigadier-General Joseph K. F. Mansfield, of the United States Army, July 18, 1862. (Died of wounds received in the battle of Antietam, Md.) Brigadier-General Isaac I. Stevens, of the United States Volunteers, July 18, 1862. (Killed in the battle of Chantilly, Va.) I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, EDWIN M. STANTON, EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 12, 1863. To the Senate of the United States: I herewith transmit to the Senate, for its consideration and ratification, a treaty with the chiefs and headmen of the Chippewas of the Mississippi and the Pillagers and Lake Winnibigoshish bands of Chippewa Indians. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. PROCLAMATIONS. [From Final Report of the Provost-Marshal-General (March 17, 1866), p. 218.] A PROCLAMATION. EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 10, 1863. In pursuance of the twenty-sixth section of the act of Congress entitled "An act for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes," approved on the 3d day of March, 1863, I, Abraham Lincoln, President and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, do hereby order and command that all soldiers enlisted or drafted in the service of the United States now absent from their regiments without leave shall forthwith return to their respective regiments. And I do hereby declare and proclaim that all soldiers now absent from their respective regiments without leave who shall, on or before the 1st day of April, 1863, report themselves at any rendezvous designated by the general orders of the War Department No. 58, hereto annexed, may be restored to their respective regiments without punishment, except the forfeiture of pay and allowances during their absence; and all who do not return within the time above specified shall be arrested as deserters and punished as the law provides; and Whereas evil-disposed and disloyal persons at sundry places have enticed and procured soldiers to desert and absent themselves from their regiments, thereby weakening the strength of the armies and prolonging the war, giving aid and comfort to the enemy, and cruelly exposing the gallant and faithful soldiers remaining in the ranks to increased hardships and danger: I do therefore call upon all patriotic and faithful citizens to oppose and resist the aforementioned dangerous and treasonable crimes, and to aid in restoring to their regiments all soldiers absent without leave, and to assist in the execution of the act of Congress "for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes," and to support the proper authorities in the prosecution and punishment of offenders against said. act and in suppressing the insurrection and rebellion. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand. Done at the city of Washington, this 10th day of March, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President: EDWIN M. STANTON, GENERAL ORDERS, NO. 58. WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, I. The following is the twenty-sixth section of the act "for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes," approved March 3, 1863: "SEC. 26. And be it further enacted, That immediately after the passage of this act the President shall issue his proclamation declaring that all soldiers now absent from their regiments without leave may return, within a time specified, to such place or places as he may indicate in his proclamation, and be restored to their respective regiments without punishment, except the forfeiture of their pay and allowances during their absence; and all deserters who shall not return within the time so specified by the President shall, upon being arrested, be punished as the law provides.” II. The following places* are designated as rendezvous to which soldiers absent without leave may report themselves to the officers named on or before the 1st day of April next under the proclamation of the President of this date. III. Commanding officers at the above-named places of rendezvous, or, in the absence of commanding officers, superintendents of recruiting service, recruiting officers, and mustering and disbursing officers, will take charge of all soldiers presenting themselves as above directed and cause their names to be enrolled, and copy of said roll will, on or before the 10th day of April, be sent to the Adjutant-General of the Army. The soldiers so reporting themselves will be sent without delay to their several regiments, a list of those sent being furnished to the commanding officer of the regiment and a duplicate to the Adjutant-General of the Army. The commanding officer of the regiment will immediately report to the Adjutant-General of the Army the receipt of any soldiers so sent to him. By order of the Secretary of War: L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has by a resolution requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation; and Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord; And, insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our * Omitted. |