| Location | Baltimore, Maryland |
|---|---|
| Document Type | Proclamation |
| Names Mentioned | – |
| Date | November 13, 1861 |
| Document Title | Proclamation by Major General John A. Dix, 13 November 1861 |
| Document Description | In his covering letter to President Lincoln, Dix observed that his proclamation was an attempt to reassure the people of Virginia's eastern shore, who "have got it into their heads that we want to steal and emancipate their negroes." Proper designation of Dix's command is problematic because there was confusion at the time on the part of both Dix and the War Department. A War Department order of August 20, 1861, had merged Maryland and Delaware, formerly in Dix's Department of Pennsylvania, into the Department of the Potomac, commanded by General George B. McClellan. Unaware that his Department of Pennsylvania had thereby been either dissolved or reduced to merely the state of Pennsylvania, Dix had continued to command from Baltiomre and to designate his orders and correspondence as issuing from the Department of Pennsylvania. (from The Destruction of Slavery, pages 79-80) |
| Transcription |
Baltimore 13th Nov. 1861 Proclamation To the People of Accomac and Northampton Counties, Va. The Military Forces of the United States are about to enter your Counties as a part of the Union. They will go among you as friends, and with t he earnest hope that they may not by your own acts, be forced to become your enemies. They will invade no rights of person or property. On the contrary, your laws, your institutions, your usages will be scrupulously respected. There need be no fear that the quietude of any fireside will be disturbed, unless the disturbance is caused by yourselves. Special directions have been given not to interfere with the conditions of any persons held to domestic service; and in order that there may be no ground for mistake or pretext for misrepresentation, commanders of Regiments and Corps have been instructed not to permit any such persons to come within their lines. The command of the expedition is entrusted to Brigadier General Henry H. Lockwood, of Delaware, a State identical, in some of the distinctive features of its social organization, with your own. Portions of his force come from Counties in Maryland, bordering on one of yours. From him, and from them, you may be assured of the sympathy of near neighbors, as well as friends, if you do not repel it by hostile resistance or attack. Their mission is to assert the Authority of the United States; to reopen your intercourse with the loyal States, and especially with Maryland, which has just proclaimed her devotion to the Union by the most triumphant vote in her political annals; to restore to commerce its accustomed guides by re-establishing the lights on your coast; to afford you a free export for the products of your labor, and a free ingress for the necessaries and comforts of life, which you require in exchange; and, in a word to put an end to the embarrassments and restrictions brought upon you by a causeless and unjustifiable rebellion. If the calamities of intestine war, which are desolating other Districts of Virginia and have already crimsoned her fields with fraternal blood, fall also upon you, it will not be the fault of the Government. It asks only that its authority may be recognized. It sends among you a force too strong to be successfully opposed; a force, which cannot be resisted in any other spirit than that of wantonness and malignity.— If there are any among you, who rejecting all overtures of friendship, thus provoke retaliation, and draw down upon themselves consequences, which the Government is most anxious to avert, to their account must be laid the blood which may be shed, and the desolation, which may be brought upon peaceful homes. - On all who are thus reckless of the obligations of humanity and duty, and on all, who are found in arms, the severest punishment warranted by the Laws of War will be visited. To those who remain in the quiet pursuit of their domestic occupations, the public authorities assure all they can give- Peace, Freedom from annoyance, Protection from Foreign and Internal Enemies, a guaranty of all Constitutional and Legal Rights and the blessings of a just and parental Government. (signed) John A. Dix Proclamation by Major General John A. Dix, 13 Nov. 1861, enclosed in Maj. Genl. John A. Dix co His Excellency A. Lincoln, 15 Nov. 1861 , vol. 27 8AC pp. 452 -55, Letters Sent, ser. 2327, Dept. of PA, RG 393 Pt. 1 (C-4167). In his covering letter to President Lincoln, Dix observed that his proclamation was an attempt to reassure the people of Virginia's eastern shore, who "have got it into their heads that we want to steal and emancipate their negroes." Proper designation of Dix's command is problematic because there was confusion at the time on the part of both Dix and the War Department. A War Department order of August 20, 1861, had merged Maryland and Delaware, formerly in Dix's Department of Pennsylvania, into the Department of the Potomac, commanded by General George B. McClellan. Unaware that his Department of Pennsylvania had thereby been either dissolved or reduced to merely the state of Pennsylvania, Dix had continued to command from Baltimore and to designate his orders and correspondence as issuing from the Department of Pennsylvania. (See Official Records, ser. 1, vol. 5, pp. 654-56.) |
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[Author (if known)], Documents from the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, [Date (if known)], Enduring Connections: Exploring Delmarva’s Black History, Nabb Research Center, Salisbury University.
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