Whereas existing exigencies demand immediate and adequate measures for
the protection of the National Constitution and the preservation of the
National Union by the suppression of the insurrectionary combinations
now existing in several States for opposing the laws of the Union and
obstructing the execution thereof, to which end a military force in
addition to that called forth by my proclamation of the 15th day of
April in the present year appears to be indispensably necessary:
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 hereby call into
the service of the United States 42,034 volunteers to serve for the
period of three years, unless sooner discharged, and to be mustered into
service as infantry and cavalry. The proportions of each arm and the
details of enrollment and organization will be made known through the
Department of War.
And I also direct that the Regular Army of the United States be
increased by the addition of eight regiments of infantry, one regiment
of cavalry, and one regiment of artillery, making altogether a maximum
aggregate increase of 22,714 officers and enlisted men, the details of
which increase will also be made known through the Department of War.
And I further direct the enlistment for not less than one or more than
three years of 18,000 seamen, in addition to the present force, for the
naval service of the United States. The details of the enlistment and
organization will be made known through the Department of the Navy.
The call for volunteers hereby made and the direction for the increase
of the Regular Army and for the enlistment of seamen hereby given,
together with the plan of organization adopted for the volunteer and for
the regular forces hereby authorized, will be submitted to Congress as
soon as assembled.
In the meantime I earnestly invoke the cooperation of all good citizens
in the measures hereby adopted for the effectual suppression of unlawful
violence, for the impartial enforcement of constitutional laws, and for
the speediest possible restoration of peace and order, and with these of
happiness and prosperity, throughout our country.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of May, A.D. 1861, and of
the Independence of the United States the eighty-fifth.