I would advise that a regulation be made directing that the courts-martial shall be immediately held on all recusants. These courts must be ordered by the President.

In this mode I think you would get the men more easily than by the use of force. Men unwilling to go, and unable to pay the probable fine, will serve in the army on pay [in preference] to being shut up in prison without pay. Those who are able to pay the fine will prefer using the money in procuring substitutes. The same limit of the fine will probably regulate the price of substitutes. I respectfully submit these matters for your consideration.

Very respectfully, yours, &c.,

A. G. CURTIN,

[Governor of Pennsylvania.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, October 26, 1862. (Sent 11.30 a. m.)

Major-General McCLELLAN:

Yours, in reply to mine about horses, received. Of course, you know the facts better than I; still, two considerations remain. Stuart's cavalry outmarched ours, having certainly done more marked service on the Peninsula and everywhere since. Secondly, will not a movement of our army be a relief to the cavalry, compelling the enemy to concentrate, instead of foraying in squads everywhere? But I am so rejoiced to learn from your dispatch to General Halleck that you begin crossing the river this morning.

A. LINCOLN.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, October 26, 1862-9 p. m. (Received 10.15 p. m.)

His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

President of the United States:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your telegram of this morning. You will pardon me for most respectfully differing with you in regard to the expression in your dispatch "Stuart's cavalry has done more marked service on the Peninsula and everywhere since." I cannot resist the strength of my own conviction that some one has conveyed to your mind an erroneous impression in regard to the service of our cavalry, for I know you would not intentionally do injustice to the excellent officers and men of which it is composed. The following statement will give you some idea of what they have done since they left Washington:

On the 8th of September our cavalry, under General Pleasonton, charged the enemy's cavalry at Poolesville, and pursued them until after dark, killing 8 and taking 6 prisoners. On the 9th, at Barnesville, they again charged them, and after two hand-to-hand fights, in which 4 of the enemy were killed and 27 taken prisoners, without our losing a single man or horse, the enemy were again routed. On the 11th, Farnsworth's brigade of cavalry, with Franklin's infantry, became engaged with the enemy at Sugar Loaf Mountain, and drove them from it. On the 13th, Pleasonton's cavalry and artillery engaged the enemy at the Catoctin Mountains, and, after carrying the pass, pursued them to the South Mountain, taking several prisoners. On the 15th, after the battle of South Mountain, Pleasonton pursued the rebels to Boonsborough, where Colonel Farnsworth, with a portion of his Eighth Illi-