July, to issue the following Proclamation, ordering a draft of five hundred thousand men :

PROCLAMATION. .

By the President of the United States of America.

WASHINGTON, July 18, 1864

WHEREAS, By the act approved July 4, 1864, entitled an act further to regulate and provide for the enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes, it is provided that the President of the United States may, at his discretion, at any time hereafter, call for any number of men as volunteers for the respective terms of one, two, and three years for military service; and that in case the quota, or any part thereof, of any town, township, ward of a city, precinct, or election district, or of a county not so subdivided, shall not be filled within the space of fifty days after such call, then the President shall immediately order a draft for one year, to fill such quota, or any part thereof which may be unfilled.

And, whereas, the new enrolment heretofore ordered is so far completed as that the afore-mentioned act of Congress may now be put in operation, for recruiting and keeping up the strength of the armies in the field, for garrisons, and such military operations as may be required for the purpose of suppressing the rebellion and restoring the authority of the United States Government in the insurgent States.

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do issue this my call for five hundred thousand volunteers for the military service; provided, nevertheless, that all credits which may be estab lished under section eight of the aforesaid act, on account of persons who have entered the naval service during the present rebellion, and by credits for men furnished to the military service in excess of calls heretofore made for volunteers, will be accepted under this call for one, two, or three years, as they may elect, and will be entitled to the bounty provided by law for the period of service for which they enlist.

And I hereby proclaim, order, and direct, that after the fifth day of September, 1864, being fifty days from the date of this call, a draft for troops to serve for one year, shall be held in every town, township, ward of a city, precinct, election district, or county not so subdivided, to fill the quota which shall be assigned to it under this call, or any part thereof which may be unfilled by volunteers, on the said fifth day of September, 1864. Done at Washington this 18th day of July, in the year of our Lord, 1864, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

In testimony wherof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the [L. 8.] seal of the United States to be affixed.

By the President.

WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

Towards the last of the month the rebels made another raid into Maryland and Pennsylvania, and on the 30th of July the town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was occupied by their cavalry under General McCausland. A written demand, signed by General Early, was presented for $100,000 in gold, or $500,000 in currency, with a threat of burning the town if the demand was not complied with. As it was not complied with, they fulfilled their threat and laid the town in ashes, without giving the citizens time to remove their property.

The rebel forces remained north of the Potomac till about the 7th of August, but accomplished nothing else of importance. On that day several of our commands which had been acting against them somewhat independently of each other were consolidated into one, at the head of which was placed General Sheridan. The benefit of this change was speedily seen. The rebels fell back south of the Potomac, and were so pressed by Sheridan that General Lee deemed it advisable to re-enforce Early from his own lines, when Sheridan in his turn fell back, and for some weeks there was active manoeuvring on both sides and several small battles were fought, in which we gained more than the rebels, who were never able to cross the Potomac in force again.

Two days before the burning of Chambersburg, General Grant had made a movement on the north side of the James River, across which, by means of pontoon bridges, he threw a force which was attacked before it had time to strengthen its position, but repulsed the rebels with a loss of four guns. This movement, though only a feint, was heavy enough to induce General Lee to throw a strong force to the north side also, when our men were in the night drawn back for an attack on the Petersburg works, which was made on the 30th. The attack was begun in front of General Burnside's lines, by the explosion of a mine under one of the rebel forts, destroying it at once. Instantly every gun in our ranks opened upon Petersburg and its defences, and an assault was made upon the gap in the rebel lines caused by the

explosion of the mine. The attack was successful in piercing the lines, but not in carrying a height just within them, called Cemetery Hill, from which, if we had suc ceeded in carrying it, our guns would have commanded Petersburg and its defences. The rebels gathered here in force, and poured so heavy a fire upon our forces that the assault could not be maintained, and while part of our troops were driven back, a large number of them, who had entered the blown-up fort, were unable to return and were compelled to surrender. Our loss in the whole affair was between two and three thousand men. Charges were made that the colored troops, who formed a part of the assaulting column, had failed to do their duty; but the evidence did not sustain this charge, but showed that the failure was due mainly to that lack of cordial co-operation among the generals in command, which has so often defeated the most skilful and promising plans.

It was supposed that this repulse would put an end to active operations in front of Petersburg for a long time; but this was not giving due credit to Grant's unyielding pertinacity. An important position on the north side of the James was captured on the 15th of August, by a ruse, Hancock's Corps having been shipped on transports down the river, as if on their way to Washington, but returning under cover of night to join the Tenth Corps in taking and holding a position only ten miles from Richmond, capturing some five hundred prisoners and ten guns. This position was important to cover the work of our men in digging the Dutch Gap Canal, through which it was hoped our iron-clads might go up the river to flank the rebel defences.

Not satisfied with this success, but taking advantage of the fact that Lee, encouraged by the ill success of our assault on the 30th of July, had sent a portion of his troops to re-enforce Early, General Grant, on the 17th, struck a blow at the other end of his lines, upon the Weldon Railroad, which was seized by our forces. A furious attack was made upon them by the rebels, which at one time met with a partial success, but our lines were

re-established, and a subsequent attack was repulsed with heavy loss. Two rebel generals were killed and three · wounded. Another and more determined assault was made on the 26th, but, after tremendous fighting, was also repulsed. Our loss was severe, but that of the rebels was far more so. The substantial prize of the struggle, the railroad, remained in our possession, and thus another of the sources of supply for the army of General Lee was cut off.

Thus the month of August gave us a decided advantage in Virginia. In the South it gave us brilliant success. In the early part of the month the preparations were completed for an attack upon Mobile, by the fleet under Commodore Farragut, aided by a small land force under General Granger. The passage of the fleet into the bay past the rebel forts, and the destruction of the rebel fleet, were accomplished in about three hours, on the morning of the 5th of August. Our fleet consisted of fourteen gunboats and three monitors. The gunboats were lashed together, two by two, that one might help the other, and the monitors were on the starboard side of the fleet. The Brooklyn led the way, followed by the flagship Hartford and the rest. One of our monitors, the Tecumseh, commanded by the gallant Craven, was struck by a torpedo and sunk with all on board, except her pilot and eight or ten of her crew. This disaster momentarily checked the advance, when Farragut, in the flag-ship, rushed forward to the head of the fleet and led the way past the forts, followed by the rest of the gunboats, each one as she went by pouring her broadsides into the rebel forts. Within the harbor the rebel ironclad Tennessee made desperate battle. The rest of the rebel fleet, except one vessel, having been captured or destroyed, she was attacked by several of our vessels at once, who rammed her seyerely whenever they could get a chance at her, and, seeing the rest of the fleet and the monitors bearing down upon her, she surrendered. She was commanded by Buchanan, who commanded the Merrimac in her famous battle with the Monitor.

The conquest of the rebel fleet was followed by the immediate surrender of Forts Gaines and Powell. Fort Morgan still held out, but was immediately invested by General Granger. On the 22d an assault of the fort was commenced, and on the 23d, after a bombardment of twelve hours, in which about three thousand shells were thrown into it, this last of the rebel defences of the harbor of Mobile was surrendered unconditionally to our forces.

Nor was this the only success. General Sherman had been drawing his lines more closely around Atlanta, and Hood having made the mistake of sending off all his cavalry upon a fruitless effort to destroy the communications between our army and Chattanooga, General Sherman took advantage of it to make a movement on the west of Atlanta towards the rear of Hood's army. Leaving one corps to defend our intrenched lines in front of the city, he threw the rest of his army upon the railroad to Macon, near West Point, upon the 30th of August, and thus cut Hood's army in two and defeated one portion of it at Jonesboro. Hood, finding that he was in danger of being cut off, blew up his magazines in Atlanta on the night of the 1st of September and retreated to the southeast, and on the 2d the Twentieth Corps, which had been left in our intrenchments, marched into the city and took possession, and General Sherman sent the message to Washington"Atlanta is ours and fairly won."

Before receiving General Sherman's official report, the War Department had received news of the fall of Atlanta, and on the 2d, at eight P. M., Mr. Stanton telegraphed to General Dix, at New York, as follows:

This department has received intelligence this evening that General Sherman's advance entered Atlanta about noon to-day. The particulars have not yet been received, but telegraphic communication during the night with Atlanta direct is expected.

It is ascertained with reasonable certainty that the naval and other credits required by the act of Congress will amount to about two hundred thousand, including New York, which has not yet been reported to this department; so that the President's call of July 10 is practically reduced to three hundred thousand men, to meet and take the place of