the State of
West Virginia, 10,000--to be mustered into the service of the United
States forthwith and to serve for the period of six months from the date
of such muster into said service, unless sooner discharged; to be
mustered in as infantry, artillery, and cavalry, in proportions which
will be made known through the War Department, which Department will
also designate the several places of rendezvous. These militia to be
organized according to the rules and regulations of the volunteer
service and such orders as may hereafter be issued, The States aforesaid
will be respectively credited under the enrollment act for the militia
services rendered under this proclamation.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 15th day of June, A.D. 1863, and
of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
_Secretary of State_.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the supplications and prayers
of an afflicted people and to vouchsafe to the Army and the Navy of the
United States victories on land and on the sea so signal and so
effective as to furnish reasonable grounds for augmented confidence that
the Union of these States will be maintained, their Constitution
preserved, and their peace and prosperity permanently restored. But
these victories have been accorded not without sacrifices of life, limb,
health, and liberty, incurred by brave, loyal, and patriotic citizens.
Domestic affliction in every part of the country follows in the train of
these fearful bereavements. It is meet and right to recognize and
confess the presence of the Almighty Father and the power of His hand
equally in these triumphs and in these sorrows:

Now, therefore, be it known that I do set apart Thursday, the 6th day of
August next, to be observed as a day for national thanksgiving, praise,
and prayer, and I invite the people of the United States to assemble on
that occasion in their customary places of worship and in the forms
approved by their own consciences render the homage due to the Divine
Majesty for the wonderful things He has done in the nation's behalf and
invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit to subdue the anger which has
produced and so long sustained a needless and crue