And whereas by the credits allowed in accordance with the act of Congress on the call for five hundred thousand men made July 18th. 1864, the number of men to be obtained under that call was reduced to two hundred and eighty thousand; and whereas the operations of the enemy in certain States have rendered it impracticable to procure from them their full quotas of troops under said call; and whereas, from the foregoing causes, but two hundred and forty thousand men have been put into the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps under the said call of July 18, 1864, leaving a deficiency on that call of two hundred and sixty thousand: (260,000):
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, in order to supply the aforesaid deficiency, and to provide for casualties in the military and naval service of the United States, do issue this my call for three hundred thousand (300,000) volunteers to serve for one, two, or three years. The quotas of the States, districts, and sub-districts under this call will be assigned by the War Department through the Bureau of the Provost Marshal General of the United States, and, ``in case the quota or any part thereof of any town, township, ward of a city, precinct or election district, or of any county not so sub-divided, shall not be filled'' before the fifteenth day of February, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, then a draft shall be made to fill such quota, or any part thereof, under this call, which may be unfilled on said fifteenth day of February 1865.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
[L.S.]
Done at the city of Washington, this nineteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four; and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. ABRAHAM LINCOLN
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD Secretary of State.