In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.
Done at the city of Washington, this 10th day of March, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 58.
WAR DEPARTMENT,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, March 10, 1863.
I. The following is the twenty-sixth section of the act "for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes," approved March 3, 1863:
"SEC. 26. And be it further enacted, That immediately after the passage of this act the President shall issue his proclamation declaring that all soldiers now absent from their regiments without leave may return, within a time specified, to such place or places as he may indicate in his proclamation, and be restored to their respective regiments without punishment, except the forfeiture of their pay and allowances during their absence; and all deserters who shall not return within the time so specified by the President shall, upon being arrested, be punished as the law provides."
II. The following places[9] are designated as rendezvous to which soldiers absent without leave may report themselves to the officers named on or before the 1st day of April next under the proclamation of the President of this date.
III. Commanding officers at the above-named places of rendezvous, or, in the absence of commanding officers, superintendents of recruiting service, recruiting officers, and mustering and disbursing officers, will take charge of all soldiers presenting themselves as above directed and cause their names to be enrolled, and copy of said roll will, on or before the 10th day of April, be sent to the Adjutant-General of the Army.