"that in addition to the other lawful penalties of the crime of desertion from the military and naval service, all persons who have deserted the military or naval service of the United States who shall not return to said service, or report themselves to a provost-marshal within sixty days after the proclamation hereinafter their rights of citizenship and their rights to become citizens, and such deserters shall be forever incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under the United States, or of exercising any rights of citizens thereof; and all persons who shall hereafter desert the military or naval service, and all persons who, being duly enrolled, shall depart the jurisdiction of the district in which he is enrolled, or go beyond the limits of the United States, with intent to avoid any draft into the military or naval service duly ordered, shall be liable to the penalties of this section. And the President is hereby authorized and required forthwith, on the passage of this act, to issue his proclamation setting forth the provisions of this section, in which proclamation the President is requested to notify all deserters returning within sixty days, as aforesaid, that they shall be pardoned on condition of returning to their regiments and companies, or to such other organizations as they may be assigned to, until they shall have served for a period of time equal to their original term of enlistment."

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do issue this my proclamation, as required by said act, ordering and requiring all deserters to return to their proper posts; and I do hereby notify them that all deserters who shall, within sixty days from the date of this proclamation, viz, on or before the 10th day of May, 1865, return to service, or report themselves to a provost-marshal, shall be pardoned, on condition that they return to their regiments and companies, or to such other organizations as they may be assigned to, and serve the remainder of their original terms of enlistment, and, in addition thereto, a period equal to the time lost by desertion.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of March, in the year [L. S.] of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS FIFTH ARMY CORPS,
March 11, 1865. (Received 10.20 a.m.)

Brevet Major-General WEBB,

Chief of Staff:

I have the honor to report that nothing of importance transpired in my front last night. Four deserters Fifty-fourth and Fifty-seventh North Carolina were received this morning. They have no news to report. They will be sent up at once.

G. K. WARREN,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS SIXTH ARMY CORPS,
March 11, 1865. (Received 12.50 p.m.)

Colonel GEORGE D. RUGGLES:

I have the honor to report that nothing of importance has transpired on the lines of this corps during the past twenty-four hours.

H. G. WRIGHT,

Major-General.