Wilder, Major Thornton K. Lothrop, Captain George H. Shaw, Lieutenant Curtis B. Raymond, and for judge-advocate, Major William L. Burt, judge-advocate-general of the Massachusetts militia, in which all the above-named officers are also in commission.

I beg leave to add that the authority conferred upon the President by chapter 201, section 1, of the acts of Congress of 1862, to make all necessary rules and regulations for enrolling the militia and otherwise putting this act into execution enables the President to issue as general order, through the War Department, for the convening such militia courts-martial by the Governors of the States, respectively, as commanders-in-chief of the militia of their respective States, who might be permitted to select, detail, or appoint officers to constitute such courts, to be composed of not less than five nor more than thirteen members, in their own discretion.

J. A. A.

[The following was on the envelope:] Will Secretary Stanton please read the within personally, and oblige,

JOHN A. ANDREW,

Governor of Massachusetts.

[Inclosure.]

GENERAL ORDERS,
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, HEADQUARTERS, Numbers 51.
Boston, September 30, 1862.

Whereas, since the last postponement of drafting in this State the examination of claims for exemption by the drafting commissioners for the several counties, and the preparation of their reports of the numbers of persons liable to draft in the different towns, has consumed all of the intervening time, and the report of the commissioner for the county of Middlesex has not yet been received; and

Whereas, until that report shall be received it is impossible to ascertain the proportions which each town and city will be required to furnish toward the 19,080 men who have been called for from Massachusetts by the President of the United States, by general order bearing date August 4, 1862; and

Whereas, several towns and cities have represented to the Governor and commander-in-chief that they are ready and willing to furnish their proportions of men as soon as they shall be informed of the numbers required of them, and have strongly urged that they ought not to be subjected to a draft without a reasonable notice of the number required; and

Whereas, it appears that towns and cities in this State are and have been furnishing men as fast as they could have been properly supplied and cared for by the Government of the United States, and there appears a probability that the full number called for will be readily supplied by voluntary enlistments;

It is therefore ordered, That the draft be postponed to the 15th day of October, in the present year, at 9 o"clock in the forenoon, when it shall be commenced in those towns and cities which shall not then have furnished their full proportions of volunteers, as they shall be stated in an order which will be promulgated as soon as the report of the commissioner for the county of Middlesex shall be received at the office of the adjutant-general, and shall be continued in the manner