Mr. Hearne - Your number 2 below seems to answer my question which I posted in a message on 5/18 which read: According to an official "Regimental Letters and Orders Book" for the 15th that I found at the National Archives, Colonel Mulligan, commander of the First Brigade, Railroad Division (troops stationed along the B&O west of Cumberland), issued an order that Adjutant James F. Cosgrove would inspect the Fifteenth on December 1st "to meet the view of the President expressed in his late proclamation." WHAT WAS THE PRESIDENT'S LATE PROCLAMATION? The only thing I can find is a preview of the Emancipation Procolamation that he issued in late November. Doe anyone have any clues? My question of you now is this: Is there anywhere that I might find published evidence that President Lincoln intended to "run it by the Army. . ." I want to footnote my quote from above with an explanation and would appreciate some source document for the explanation. Thanks for any help. Joy >Lincoln presented the preliminary E.P. to the Cabinet on 22 Sept. 1862. >The Preliminary E.P. had several functions, none of which served to free any >slaves. >1. To keep England and France from mediating the separation of the country. >After all, they > wanted their precious cotton back. If Lincoln couldn't find it in >himself to take a stand on > slavery, then he obviously did not feel that strongly about its demise. >2. To run it by the Army and see how it played. >3. To play to his abolitionist base, always a good thing with a looming >mid-term election. >4. To link abolition of slavery to the greater goal of maintenance of the >Union. >5. To induce, in the minds of southerners, in general, the idea that the >Federal Govt. > remained preeminent, and that the southerners were insurrectionists -- >not revolutionaries. > >There was not a further E.P. after final publication in Jan. 1863. >