Head-quarters,
Department of the East, New York City,
December 14,1864.
General Orders,
No. 97:
Information having been received at these head-quarters that
the rebel raiders who were guilty of murder and robbery at St. Alban's have
been discharged from arrest at Montreal, and that other marauding enterprises
of a like character are in preparation in Canada, the commanding General deems
it due to the people of the frontier towns to adopt the most prompt and
efficient measures for the security of their lives and property. All military
commanders on the frontiers are therefore instructed, in case farther acts of
depredation and murder are attempted, whether by marauders or persons acting
under pretended commissions from the rebel authorities at Richmond, to shoot
down the perpetrators, if possible, while in the commission of their crimes; or
if it be necessary with a view to their capture to cross the boundary between
the United States and Canada, said commanders are hereby directed to pursue
them wherever they may take refuge; and, in the event of their capture, they
are under no circumstances to be surrendered, but are to be sent to these
head-quarters for trial and punishment by martial law.
The Major-general commanding the Department will not
hesitate to exercise to the fullest extent the authority he possesses under the
law of nations in regard to persons organizing hostile expeditions within
neutral territory, and fleeing to it for an asylum after committing acts of
depredation within our own, such an exercise of authority having become
indispensable to protect our cities and towns from incendiarism and our people
from robbery and murder.
It is earnestly hoped that the inhabitants of our frontier
districts will abstain from all acts of retaliation on account of the outrages
committed by rebel marauders, and that the proper measures of redress will be
left to the military authorities.
John A. Dix, Major-general.
SOURCE: Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix,
Volume 2, p. 112
No comments:
Post a Comment