DEAR SIR:-I have the honor to transmit to your Excellency herewith the report of this department, embracing the period from April 15, 1861, up to the present date.

As there has been no session of the Legislature since the close of the year 1861, I did not deem it necessary to furnish a separate. report for that year, and now include the operations of the entire period in this report.

I have the honor to be,
Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

LAZ. NOBLE,
Adjutant General.

SIR-In compliance with the requirements of the law, I beg leave to lay before you the transactions of this department, not only for the past year, but likewise for the period beginning with the rebellion of the Southern States of the Union, in the month of April, 1861.

At that unfortunate period, the Military Laws of the State were so defective that not a single regiment, or even a single company, could be furnished by your Excellency from the State Militia, to answer the requisition of the President of the United States for six regiments of infantry. To remedy the existing defects, your proclamation, appealing to the patriotism of the citizens of the State, was issued, and so prompt was the response from all sections of the State, that, at the expiration of nine days, a sufficient number of companies to organize the six regiments called for, were in camp, and a surplus of nearly thirty companies besides.

Having no enrolled militia in the State, our citizens were in no condition to obey the call, yet they banded together, formed companies, and rushed to the camp of rendezvous, having no arms or equipments, no experience of soldier's life, but eager to unite in maintaining the integrity of the Union and defending it against the assaults of traitors.

On the 25th of April, the companies for the six regiments were designated and mustered into the service by Lieut. Col. Th. J. Wood, U. S. A.; and on the 26th, the orders were issued announc ing their organization into regiments.

The proclamation of the President of the United States, the requisition of the Secretary of War, announcing the quota of each State, and the proclamation of your Excellency, with the instructions issued by the Adjutant General of the State, are hereto appended for reference and for publication.

1

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America.

WHEREAS, the laws of the United States have been for some time past, and now are, opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law.

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed.

The details for this object will be immediately communicated to the State authorities, through the War Department.

I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate and aid this effect to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured.

I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called for, will probably be to repossess the forts, places and property which have been seized from the Union; and,

every event, the utmost care will be observed, consistent with the object aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference with, property, or any disturbance with peaceful citizens, in any part of the country.

And I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid, to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days of this date.

Deeming that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, convene both Houses of Congress. Senators and Representatives are, therefore, summoned to assemble at their respective chambers, at twelve o'clock, noon, on Thursday, the fourth day of July next, then and there to consider and determine such measures as, in their wisdom, the public safety and interest may seem to demand.

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

Done in the City of Washington, this fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and the independence of the United States the eighty-fifth.

SEAL

BY THE PResident:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.