GENERAL ORDERS, 
No. 2!). 
WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Adjutant General’s Office, 
Washington, June 4, 1861. 
The following order litis been received from the War Department 
and is published for the information of the Army : 
War Department, June 4, 1861. 
'ihe death of a great statesman, in this hour of peril, cannot bo 
regarded otherwise than as a national calamity. Stephen A. Douglas 
expired in the commercial capital of Illinois yesterday morning at 9 
o’clock. A representative of the overpowering sentiment enlisted in 
the cause in which we are engaged. A man who nobly discarded 
party for his country. A Senator who forgot all prejudices in an 
earnest desire to serve the republic. A Statesman who lately received 
for the Chief Magistracy of the Union a vote second only to that by 
Avhich the President was elected, and who had every reason to look 
forward to a long career of usefulness and honor. 
A patriot, who defended with equal zeal and ability the constitu- 
tion as it came to us from our fathers, and whose last mission upon 
earth was that of rallying the people of his own State of Illinois, as 
one man, around the glorious flag of our Union, has been called from 
the scene of life and the field of his labor. 
This Department recognising in the loss one common to the whole 
country, and profoundly sensible of the grief it will excite among mil- 
lions of men, hereby advises the Colonels of the different regiments to 
have this order read to-morrow to their respective commands, and 
suggests that the colors of the republic be craped in mourning in 
honor of the illustrious dead. 
SIMON CAMERON, 
Secretary of War. 
By order: 
L. THOMAS, 
Adjutant General. 
Official : 
Assistant Adjutant General.