_Washington, January 4, 1863_.
Hon. GIDEON WELLES,
_Secretary of the Navy_.
DEAR SIR: As many persons who come well recommended for loyalty and
service to the Union cause, and who are refugees from rebel oppression
in the State of Virginia, make application to me for authority and
permission to remove their families and property to protection within
the Union lines by means of our armed gunboats on the Potomac River and
Chesapeake Bay, you are hereby requested to hear and consider all such
applications and to grant such assistance to this class of persons as in
your judgment their merits may render proper and as may in each case be
consistent with the perfect and complete efficiency of the naval service
and with military expediency.