WAR DEPARTMENT,

September 12, 1861.

Major-General Butler is authorized to fit out and prepare such troops in New England as he may judge fit for the purpose, to make an expedition along the Eastern Shore of Virginia, via the railroad from Wilmington, Del., to Salisbury, and thence through a portion of Maryland, Accomac and Northampton Counties, of Virginia, to Cape Charles. Transportation agents, quartermasters, and commissaries of subsistence will answer General Butler's requisitions for this purpose.

SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War.

GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 78.
Washington, September 16, 1861.

I. All persons having received authority from the War Department to raise volunteer regiments, batteries, or companies in the loyal States are, with their commands, hereby placed under the orders of the Governors of those States, to whom they will immediately report the present condition of their respective organizations. These troops will be organized, or reorganized, and prepared for service by the Governors of their respective States in the manner they may judge most advantageous to the interests of the Federal Government.

* * * *

By order:

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS, Numbers 23.
Boston, September 23, 1861.

Massachusetts has at present in active service sixteen regiments and seven unattached companies of infantry and one full battery of artillery. There are now in a forward state of organization in the various State camps the following new regiments and companies:

Twenty-second Regiment, Colonel Henry Wilson, camp, Lynnfield; Twenty-third Regiment, colonel not designated, camp, Lynnfield; Twenty-fourth Regiment, Colonel Upton, camp, Worcester; Twenty- sixth Regiment, Colonel Jones, camp, Lowell; Twenty-seventh Regiment, Colonel Lee, camp Springfield; First Regiment Cavalry, colonel not designated, camp, Readville; First Battery Artillery, Captain Porter, camp, Cambridge; Third Battery Artillery, Captain Follett, camp, Lynnfield; Fourth Battery Artillery, captain not designated, camp, Lowell; Fifth Battery Artillery, captain not designated, camp, Lynnfield.

Two more infantry regiments will go into camp in a few days, one of which is the Twenty-eighth, to be commanded by Thomas S. Murphy, and is to form a part of the command of Major-General Butler, whose headquarters are at Lowell, and the other is the Twenty-ninth, intended for the Irish (Shields') Brigade, the colonel of which has not been designated.

It is the intention of His Excellency the commander-in-chief to have these regiments and companies filled to the maximum standard as quickly as possible, and until they are filled no recruiting except for

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