applied to Major-General Dix to know if volunteers for 100 days would be received. I issued a proclamation to the people of Maine, appealing to them to come up to the help of the Nation, a copy of which is forwarded by mail.* I now apply to you to be informed if such volunteers will be accepted and mustered into the service of the United States, to be employed for the defense of Washington and the loyal States, meaning Maryland and Pennsylvania. We have no State military organization; therefore what we do has got to be done by volunteering. If you accept soldiers from this State for the time and purpose indicated, an equitable allowance will, of course, be made on the quota of the State upon any future call.

SAML. CONY,

Governor.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, July 15, 1864.

Governor CONY,

Augusta, Me.:

Your telegram of this date just received. Please accept the thanks of the Department for your prompt and energetic action. The enemy retreated from Washington Tuesday night and are returning to Virginia. Whether they have abandoned their enterprise, or only fallen back to await re-enforcements from Richmond, reported to be advancing, is yet uncertain. General Wright is pursuing them. It is the design of the President to make a call for twelve-months" men immediately, and as a call for 100-days" men might interfere much in the raising of volunteers for a year, it may not be expedient to call for the shorter term except in case of extreme necessity. The movements of our own forces and of the enemy will probably be sufficiently developed within twenty-four hours to enable me to give you a definite answer. In the meantime it would be well to suspend any action in raising men for the short term of 100 days. If any have been already raised they will be accepted.

EDWIN. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

AUGUSTA, ME., July 15, 1864.

Honorable E. M. STANTON:

The U. S. consul at Saint Johns telegraphs me that a small raiding party left that place to commit depredations on the frontier of Maine on Wednesday night. Cannot the officers in charge of fortifications on our coast be authorized to man at least a part of the forts at Portland and batteries elsewhere, with men of the Invalid Corps in this State?

SAML. CONY,

Governor of Maine.

WAR DEPT., PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., July 15, 1864.

Ma. J. W. T. GARDINER,

Acting Assistant Provost-Marshal-General, Augusta, Me.:

Confer with Governor Cony and then give such orders as may be necessary to make troops of Veteran Reserve Corps in your State as

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*See p. 488.

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