Should any portion of that regiment mutiny (and there is now some reason to suppose that they will), you are authorized to use force if necessary to quell it. If they refuse to obey, you are authorized to fire on them.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. V. COLBURN,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

Numbers 1.
Washington, August 20, 1861.

In accordance with General Orders, Numbers 15, of August 17, 1861, from the headquarters of the Army, I hereby assume command of the Army of the Potomac, comprising the troops serving in the former Departments of Washington and Northeastern Virginia, in the valley of the Shenandoah, and in the States of Maryland and Delaware.

The organization of the command into divisions and brigades will be announced hereafter.

The following-named officers are attached to the staff of the Army of the Potomac:

Major S. Williams, assistant adjutant-general.

Captain A. V. Colburn, assistant adjutant-general.

Colonel R. B. Marcy, inspector-general.

Colonel T. M. Key, aide-de-camp.

Captain N. B. Sweitzer, First Cavalry, aide-de-camp.

Captain Edward McK. Hudson, Fourteenth Infantry, aide-de-camp.

Captain Lawrence A. Williams, Tenth Infantry, aide-de-camp.

Major A. J. Myer, signal officer.

Major Stewart Van Vliet, chief quartermaster.

Major H. F. Clarke, chief commissary.

Surg. C. S. Tripler, medical director.

Major J. G. Barnard, chief engineer.

Major J. N. Macomb, chief topographical engineer.

Captain C. P. Kingsbury, chief of ordnance.

Brigadier General George Stoneman, volunteer service, chief of cavalry.

Brigadier General W. F. Barry, volunteer service, chief of artillery.

GEO. B. MCCLELLAN,

Major-General, U. S. Army.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF OCCUPATION,
Clarksburg, W. Va., August 20, 1861.

To the Loyal Citizens of Western Virginia:

You are the vast majority of the people. If the principle of self-government is to be respected, you have a right to stand in the position you have assumed, faithful to the constitution and laws of Virginia as they were before the ordinance of secession.

The Confederates have determined at all hazards to destroy the Government which for eighty years has defended our rights and given us a name among the nations. Contrary to your interests and your wishes they have brought war on your soil. Their tools and dupes told you you must vote for secession as the only means to insure peace; that unless you did so, hordes, of abolitionist would overrun you, plunder