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and Navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans,) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth,) and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this Proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

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 first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of [L. S.] the Independence of the United States of America the eightyseventh.

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The following Act of Congress is published for the information and government of all concerned :

[PUBLIC NO. 5.]

AN ACT to facilitate the discharge of disabled soldiers from the army, and the inspection of convalescent camps and hospitals.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be added to the present medical corps of the army eight medical inspectors, who shall, immediately after the passage of this act, be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, without regard to their rank when so selected, but with sole regard to qualifications. and who shall have the rank, pay, and emoluments now authorized by law to officers of that grade.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the officers of the medical inspector's department shall be charged, in addition to the duties now assigned to them by existing laws, with the duty of making regular and frequent inspections of all military general hospitals and convalescent camps, and shall, upon each such inspection, designate to the surgeon in charge of such hospitals or camps all soldiers who may be, in their opinion, fit subjects for discharge from the service, on surgeon's certificate of disability, or sufficiently recovered to be returned to their regiments for duty, and shall see that such soldiers are discharged or so

returned. And the medical inspecting officers are hereby empowered, under such regulations as may be hereafter established, to direct the return to duty, or the discharge from service, as the case may be, of all soldiers designated by them.

Approved December 27, 1862.

BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY of War:

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The following Act of Congress is published for the information and government of all concerned:

[PUBLIC-NO. 6.]

AN ACT to improve the organization of the Cavalry forces.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter each regiment of Cavalry organized in the United States service may have two assistant surgeons, and each company or troop of Cavalry shall have from sixty to seventy-eight privates.

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I..The following officers and men have been declared duly exchanged as prisoners of war since the announcement in "General Orders" No. 191, of November 19, 1862:

1. All the officers and enlisted men who were delivered at City Point, Va., from the 11th November, 1862, to the 1st January, 1863.

2. All officers and enlisted men captured at Harper's Ferry.

3. All officers and enlisted men paroled at Winchester, November 15 and 26, 1862, and December 1, 1862.

4. All officers and enlisted men paroled by Colonel Imboden, November 9, 1862.

5. All officers and enlisted men paroled at Goldsborough, N. C., May 22, 1862, and delivered at Washington, North Carolina.

6. All captures of officers, enlisted men, and camp followers, in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and Louisiana, up to January 1, 1863.

7. All captures of officers, enlisted men, and camp followers, in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and Florida, up to December 10, 1862.

8. All captures on the sea, the sea and gulf coasts, and the waters flowing into the same, up to December 10, 1862.

II..The paroled troops herein declared to be exchanged will be, without delay, equipped for the field and forwarded to the armies to which they belong, from posts or camps wherever they may be collected. All officers and enlisted men absent, in virtue of being on parole, will, now that they are exchanged, immediately return to duty with their proper commands.

BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR:

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Acting Signal Officers of the Army, or others, who may lose or dispose of field-glasses belonging to the supplies for the signal service, will be charged for the same at the following rates, computed as the average actual cost to the United States:

For each signal telescope and strap..

For each binocular glass, case, and strap...

$27 00
22 00

BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR:

L. THOMAS, Adjutant General.

GENERAL ORDERS,

WAR DEPARTMENT,

ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, January 29, 1863.

No. 24. Paragraph 1142, page 168, General Regulations for the Army, is revised so that the last sentence shall read as follows: Copies of the telegrams must accompany vouchers for their payment where they can be procured. If the copies cannot be procured, the account may be paid by a Quartermaster upon the certificate of the Commanding General of the Department, or the Commanding Officer of the post, showing that the telegrams were on public business, and that the matter demanded this mode of communication.

BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR:

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Paragraph 1341, General Regulations, and "General Orders" No. 86, of July 23, 1862, paragraph IV, are hereby modified so as to require that applications for payment in cases where certificates of discharge or final statements are lost or destroyed, shall be made to the Second Auditor of the Treasury instead of the Second Comptroller.

BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR:

L. THOMAS, Adjutant General.

GENERAL ORDERS,

WAR DEPARTMENT,

No. 35.

ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, February 7, 1863.

On the recommendation of the Board of Inspector Generals, the following articles are added to the list or schedule of those which may be sold by sutlers to the officers and soldiers of the volunteer service under the Act of March 19, 1862, published in General Orders No. 27, of 1862:

Can meats and oysters, dried beef, smoked tongues, can and fresh vegetables, pepper, mustard, yeast powders, pickles, sardines, Bologna sausages, eggs, buckwheat flour, mackerel, codfish, poultry, saucepans,

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