WAR DEPARTMENT, _February 29, 1844_.
In the deepest grief the President of the United States has instructed
the undersigned to announce to the Army that from the accidental
explosion of a gun yesterday on board the United States steamship
_Princeton_ the country and its Government lost at the same moment the
Secretary of State, the Hon. A.P. Upshur, and the Secretary of the Navy,
the Hon. T.W. Gilmer.
Called but a few days since to preside over the administration of the
War Department, it is peculiarly painful to the undersigned that his
first official communication to the Army should be the announcement of a
calamity depriving the country of the public services of two of our most
accomplished statesmen and popular and deeply esteemed fellow-citizens.
Their virtues, talents, and patriotic services will ever be retained in
the grateful recollection of their countrymen and perpetuated upon the
pages of the history of our common country.
Deep as may be the gloom which spreads over the community, it has
pleased the Almighty Disposer of Events to add another shade to it
by blending in this melancholy catastrophe the deaths of an eminent
citizen, Virgil Maxcy, esq., lately chargé d'affaires to Belgium; a
gallant and meritorious officer of the Navy, a chief of a bureau,
Captain B. Kennon, and a private citizen of New York of high and
estimable character, besides others, citizens and sailors, either
killed or wounded.
As appropriate honors to the memory of these distinguished Secretaries,
half-hour guns will be fired at every military post furnished with the
proper ordnance the day after the receipt of this order from sunrise to
sunset. The national flag will be displayed at half-staff during the
same time. And all officers of the Army will wear for three months the
customary badge of mourning.
WM. WILKINS
_Secretary of War_.