zation, you are authorized to disband the Washington Clay Guards and give its members an honorable discharge, with the thanks of the Government for the services performed.

Very respectfully,

SIMON CAMERON.

Secretary of War.

[2.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF WASHINGTON Numbers 34.
Washington, D. C. May 1, 1861.

Captain McDonald's and Captain Yeager's companies Pennsylvania volunteers, now at the Capitol will without delay proceed to take post at the Washington Arsenal. On their arrival there the officers in command of these companies will report to Bvt. Major G. D. Ramsay, Ordnance Corps, commanding.

By order of Colonel Mansfield:

THEO. TALBOT

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[2.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA,
Philadelphia, May 1, 1861

Colonel LORENZO THOMAS.

Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington D. C.:

COLONEL: I respectfully repeat in writing my report sustantially made verbally to the General-in-Chief of my late expedition from Washington to Harrisburg, Pa. After office hours on the [18th] of April, Major McDowell informed me that the Secretary of War desired I should go that afternoon to Harrisburg to hasten the mustering into the service of the United States the Pennsylvania quota of troops called for by the President and to receive and place them on the Northern Central Railroad, so as to secure it from injury and to keep open communication between Washington and Harrisburg through Baltimore. The train for Baltimore was soon to leave, and I hastened to secure a few minutes with the General-in-Chief. General Scott informed me that railroad communication with the north was likely to be disturbed, if not broken, in Baltimore, and should that channel be broken for ten days, Washington would be in a state of starvation and be likely to fall into the hands of the secessionists, who it was believed were plotting its capture. He gave me the names of certain gentlemen in Baltimore whom he desired I should confer with, in order to obtain the condition of the public mind and opinions of influential persons in that city, and if possible, to get advice as to how troops could be passed peaceably through Baltimore. He said there was no time for written or detailed instructions; I knew what was desired. He relied upon my judgment and energy to accomplish the most in the quickest time and the best manner possible. He authorized me to use his name and, if necessary, that of the Secretary of War, to secure the object of the trip and for any useful and lawful purpose pertaining to the service if I could not communicate in time with the Department in Washington. Armed only with a single letter of introduction from the Secretary of War and the above instructions, I left for Harrisburg. I passed the night in Blaitmore, where I conferred with several residents and two [officers of the Army], from all of whom I learned that a collision was likely to take

See Cameron to Porter, April 18, p. 328.