Today in History:

141 Series I Volume LII-I Serial 109 - Supplements Part I

Page 141 Chapter LXIV. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.

The troops whom he receives shall be on the same footing in every respect as those of the like kind called for in the proclamation above cited, except that the officers shall be commissioned by the United States. He is therefore carefully and diligently to discharge the duty hereby devolved upon him by doing and performing all manner of things thereunto belonging.

Given under my hand at the city of Washington this seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and in the eighty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:

SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War.

[4.]


HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
Washington, D. C., May 8, 1861.

General GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN,

Cincinnati, Ohio:

Your dispatch of yesterday received. Since the order of the 2nd the Secretary of War decides that provisions must be stopped at Cairo. Your General Orders from 1 to 4 received. The general says it is impossible to give you regular officers, except those mentioned in letter of April 30, and captain of engineers and medical officer. The genera; desires you to relieve the other officers from your orders.

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[4.]

NEWPORT, KY., May 10, 1861.

Honorable SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War, Washington:

SIR: The undersigned, unconditional Union men, citizens of the United States, acting as the Safety Committee of the United Home Guard of Newport, Ky., respectfully submit to your consideration the following existing facts; The conspirators are hard at work in our midst, and to sustain this assertion we refer to the fact that a large organized band of men exists in Bracken and adjoining counties-for what purpose we can readily conjecture. We assure you in the most earnest manner that our organization is pledged to support the Government of the United States, no matter what Kentucky may do, and to maintain its laws when the rebels of Kentucky should furnish the opportunity. We number over 800 effective and able men in the town of Newport, drilling every night, w hilts thrice that number, who live in the interior of our county, are ready to hasten to the rescue. We need arms, most of our men being unable to purchase them. We cannot depend upon subscriptions in our city or Covington, and do not receive mor than promises from Cincinnati sources.

It is to-day ascertained (almost to a decided certainty) that the Governor of Kentucky has the intention, after arming the State, to march the so-called State Guard to the border and, of course, to dorw down the unprotected Union men. As we are pledged to prevent this, we appeal to you, in the name of all that is cherished by a liberty-loving people, to furnish us with arms to protect our lives in our struggle for


Page 141 Chapter LXIV. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.