On the 4th instant you telegraphed me that Private Daniel Hanson, of Ninety-seventh New York Volunteers, had not yet been tried. When he shall be, please notify me of the result, with a brief statement of his case, if he be convicted. Gustave Blittersdorf, who you say is enlisted in the One hundred and nineteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers as William Fox, is proven to me to be only fifteen years old last January. I pardon him, and you will discharge him or put him in the ranks at your discretion. Mathias Brown, of Nineteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers, is proven to me to be eighteen last May, and his friends say he is convicted on an enlistment and for a desertion both before that time. If this last be true he is pardoned, to be kept or discharged as you please. If not true suspend his execution and report the facts of his case. Did you receive my despatch of 12th pardoning John Murphy?
A. LINCOLN.
[The Lincoln papers during this time have a suspended execution on almost every other page, I have omitted most of these D.W.]
TELEGRAM TO T. W. SWEENEY.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 16, 1863.
THOMAS W. SWEENEY, Continental, Philadelphia:
Tad is teasing me to have you forward his pistol to him.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO T. C. DURANT.
WASHINGTON, D. C., October 16, 1863.
T. C. DURANT, New York:
I remember receiving nothing from you of the 10th, and I do not comprehend your despatch of to-day. In fact I do not remember, if I ever knew, who you are, and I have very little conception as to what you are telegraphing about.
A. LINCOLN.
COMMENT ON A NOTE.
NEW YORK, October 15, 1863.
DEAR SIR : On the point of leaving I am told, by a gentleman to whose statements I attach credit, that the opposition policy for the Presidential campaign will be to "abstain from voting."
J.
[Comment.]
More likely to abstain from stopping, once they get at it, until they shall have voted several times each.
October 16.
A. L.
TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 16, 1863.
MAJOR GENERAL HALLECK:
I do not believe Lee can have over 60,000 effective men.
Longstreet's corps would not be sent away to bring an equal force back upon the same road; and there is no other direction for them to have come from.
Doubtless, in ****** the present movement, Lee gathered in all available scraps, and added them to Hill's and Ewell's corps; but that is all, and he made the movement in the belief that four corps had left General Meade; and General Meade's apparently avoiding a collision with him has confirmed him in that belief. If General Meade can now attack him on a field no worse than equal for us, and will do so now with all the skill and courage which he, his officers, and men possess, the honor will be his if he succeeds, and the blame may be mine if he fails.
Yours truly, A. LINCOLN.
CALL FOR 300,000 VOLUNTEERS, OCTOBER 17, 1863.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
Whereas the term of service of a part of the Volunteer forces of the United States will expire during the coming year; and whereas, in addition to the men raised by the present draft, it is deemed expedient to call out three hundred thousand volunteers to serve for three years or during the war, not, however, exceeding three years:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, and of the militia of the several States when called into actual service, do issue this my proclamation, calling upon the governors of the different States to raise, and have enlisted into the United States service, for the various companies and regiments in the field from their respective States, the quotas of three hundred thousand men.
I further proclaim that all the volunteers thus called out and duly enlisted shall receive advance pay, premium, and bounty, as heretofore communicated to the governors of States by the War Department through the Provost-Marshal-General's office, by special letters.
I further proclaim that all volunteers received under this call, as well as all others not heretofore credited, shall be duly credited and deducted from the quotas established for the next draft.
I further proclaim that if any State shall fail to raise the quota assigned to it by the War Department under this call, then a draft for the deficiency in said quota shall be made in said State, or in the districts of said State, for their due proportion of said quota, and the said draft shall commence on the 5th day of January, 1864.
And I further proclaim that nothing in this proclamation shall interfere with existing orders, or with those which may be issued for the present draft in the States where it is now in progress, or where it has not yet been commenced.
The quotas of the States and districts will be assigned by the War Department through the Provost-Marshal-General's office, due regard being had for the men heretofore furnished, whether by volunteering or drafting; and the recruiting will be conducted in accordance with such instructions as have been or may be issued by that department.