JOHN BELL, _Secretary of War_.




GENERAL ORDERS, No. 20.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, April 7, 1841_.

The death of the President of the United States having been officially
announced from the War Department, the Major-General Commanding in Chief
communicates to the Army the melancholy intelligence with feelings of
the most profound sorrow. The long, arduous, and faithful military
services in which President Harrison has been engaged since the first
settlement of the Western country, from the rank of a subaltern to that
of a commander in chief, are too well known to require a recital of them
here. It is sufficient to point to the fields of Tippecanoe, the banks
of the Miami, and the Thames, in Upper Canada, to recall to many of the
soldiers of the present Army the glorious results of some of his
achievements against the foes of his country, both savage and civilized.

The Army has on former occasions been called upon to mourn the loss of
distinguished patriots who have occupied the Presidential chair, but
this is the first time since the adoption of the Constitution it has to
lament the demise of a President while in the actual exercise of the
high functions of the Chief Magistracy of the Union.

The members of the Army, in common with their fellow-citizens of all