ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

PRESIDENT’S GENERAL WAR ORDER No. 2.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

Washington, March 8, 1862.

Ordered, 1.  That the major-general commanding the Army of the Potomac proceed forthwith to organize that part of the said army destined to enter upon active operations (including the reserve, but excluding the troops to be left in the fortifications about Washington) into four army corps, to be commanded according to seniority of rank, as follows: 

First Corps to consist of four divisions, and to be commanded by
Major-General I. McDowell.

Second Corps to consist of three divisions, and to be commanded by
Brigadier-General E.V.  Sumner.

Third Corps to consist of three divisions, and to be commanded by
Brigadier-General S.P.  Heintzelman.

Fourth Corps to consist of three divisions, and to be commanded by
Brigadier-General E.D.  Keyes.

2.  That the divisions now commanded by the officers above assigned to the commands of army corps shall be embraced in and form part of their respective corps.

3.  The forces left for the defense of Washington will be placed in command of Brigadier-General James S. Wadsworth, who shall also be military governor of the District of Columbia.

4.  That this order be executed with such promptness and dispatch as not to delay the commencement of the operations already directed to be undertaken by the Army of the Potomac.

5.  A fifth army corps, to be commanded by Major-General N.P.  Banks, will be formed from his own and General Shields’s (late General Lander’s) divisions.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

PRESIDENT’S GENERAL WAR ORDER No. 3.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

Washington, March 8, 1862.

Ordered, That no change of the base of operations of the Army of the Potomac shall be made without leaving in and about Washington such a force as in the opinion of the General in Chief and the commanders of all the army corps shall leave said city entirely secure.

That no more than two army corps (about 50,000 troops) of said Army of the Potomac shall be moved en route for a new base of operations until the navigation of the Potomac from Washington to the Chesapeake Bay shall be freed from enemy’s batteries and other obstructions, or until the President shall hereafter give express permission.

That any movements as aforesaid en route for a new base of operations which may be ordered by the General in Chief, and which may be intended to move upon the Chesapeake Bay, shall begin to move upon the bay as early as the 18th day of March instant, and the General in Chief shall be responsible that it so move as early as that day.

Ordered, That the Army and Navy cooperate in an immediate effort to capture the enemy’s batteries upon the Potomac between Washington and the Chesapeake Bay.