The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

268 THE LIFE, PUBLIC SERVICES, AND
8th of March issued two general war orders, the first
directing the Major-General commanding the Army of
the Potomac to proceed forthwith to organize that part of
said army destined to enter upon active operations into
four army corps, to be commanded, the first by General
McDowell, the second by General Sumner, the third by
General Heintzelman, and the fourth by General Keyes.
General Banks was assigned to the command of a fifth
corps. It also appointed General Wadsworth Military
Governor at Washington, and directed the order to be
"executed with such promptness and dispatch as not to
delay the commencement of the operations already directed to be undertaken by the Army of the Potomac."
The second of these orders was as follows:EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, March 8, 1862.
Orderred, That no change of the base of operations of the Army of
the Potomac shall be made without leaving in and about Washington
such a force as, in the opinion of the General-in-Chief and the commanders of army corps, shall leave said city entirely secure.
That no more than two army corps (about fifty thousand troops) of
said Army of the Potomac shall be moved en route for a new base of
operations until the navigation of the Potomac, from Washington to the
Chesapeake Bay, shall be freed from the enemy's batteries, and other
obstructions, or until the President shall hereafter give express permission.
That any movement as aforesaid, en route for a new base of operations,
which may be ordered by the General-in-Chief, and which may be intended to move upon the Chesapeake Bay, shall begin to move upon the
bay as early as the eighteenth March instant, and the General-in-Chief
shall be responsible that it moves as early as that day.
Ordered, That the army and navy co-operate in an immediate effort to
capture the enemy's batteries upon the Potomac between Washington
and the Chesapeake Bay. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General.
This order was issued on the 8th of March. On the
9th, information was received by General McClellan, at.
Washington, that the enemy had abandoned his position
in front of that city. He at once crossed the Potomac,
and on the same night issued orders for an immediate advance of the whole army towards Manassas-not with