[Indorsement.]

NOVEMBER 22, 1864.

Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War, with the recommendation that some orders be made as soon as practicable. The necessity for this is shown in this communication.

JAMES B. FRY,

Provost-Marshal-General.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, by my proclamation of the nineteenth of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, it was declared that the ports of certain States, including those of Norfolk, in the State of Virginia, [and] Fernandina, and Pensacola, in the State of Florida, were, for reasons therein set forth, intended to be placed under blockade; and whereas, the said ports were subsequently blockaded accordingly, but, having for some time past been in the military possession of the United States, it is deemed advisable that they should be opened to domestic and foreign commerce:

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth section of the act of Congress, approved on the eighteenth of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, entitled "An act further to provide for the collection of duties in imports, and for other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade of the said ports of Norfolk, Fernandina, and Pensacola shall so far cease and determine, form and after the first day of December next, that commercial intercourse with those ports, except as to persons, things, and information contraband of war, may from that time be carried on, subject to the laws of the United States, to the limitations, and in pursuance of the regulations which may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and to such military and naval regulations as are now in force or may hereafter be found necessary.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this nineteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- four, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty- ninth.

[L. S.] ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State.

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT., GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 286.
Washington, November 22, 1864.

Officer serving in the field are permitted to dispense with shoulder straps and the prescribed insignia of rank on their horse equipments. The marks of rank prescribed to be worn bon the shoulder straps will be worn on the shoulder in place of the strap. Officers are also permitted to wear overcoats of the same color and shape as those of the enlisted