For the purpose of more effectually preventing all commercial intercourse with in-surrectionary States except such as shall be authorized in pursuance of law, and of securing consistent, uniform, and efficient action in conducting such intercourse as shall be so authorized, and for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of an act of Congress entitled "An act to provide for the collection of abandoned property and for the prevention of frauds in insurrectionary States," approved March 12, 1863, it is hereby ordered—
I. That no officer of the Army of the United States nor other person connected therewith shall authorize or have any interest in the transportation of any goods, wares, or merchandise (except supplies belonging to or contracted for by the United States, designed for the military or naval forces thereof, and moving under military or naval orders, and except also sutlers' supplies and other things necessary for the use and comfort of the troops of the United States, and moving under permits of the authorized officers of the Treasury Department) into any State declared by the President to be in insurrection; nor authorize nor have any interest in the purchase or sale therein of any goods or chattels, wares or merchandise, cotton, tobacco, or other product of the soil thereof; nor the transportation of the same, except as aforesaid, therefrom or therein; nor shall any such officer or person authorize, prohibit, or in any manner interfere with any such purchase or sale or transportation which shall be conducted under the regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury, unless under some imperative military necessity, in the place or section where the same shall be conducted, or unless requested by an agent or some other authorized officer of the Treasury Department, in which case all commanders of military departments, districts, and posts will render such aid in carrying out the provisions of the said act, and in enforcing due observance of the said regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury, as can be given without manifest injury to the public service.
II. It is further ordered that every officer or private or person employed in or with the regular or volunteer forces of the United States who may receive or have under his control any property which shall have been abandoned by the owner or owners, or captured in any district declared to be in insurrection against the United States, including all property seized under military orders, excepting only such as shall be required for military use of the United States forces, shall promptly turn over all such property to the agent appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury to receive the same, who shall give duplicate receipts therefor.
And every such officer or private, or person employed in or with the regular or volunteer forces of the United States, shall also promptly turn over to such agent, in like manner, all receipts, bills of lading, and other papers, documents, and vouchers showing title to such property, or the right to the possession, control, or direction thereof; and he shall make such order, indorsement, or writing as he has power to make to enable such agent to take possession of such property or the proceeds thereof. Arms, munitions of war, forage, horses, mules, wagons, beef cattle, and supplies which are necessary in military operations, shall be turned over to the proper officers of the ordnance or of the quartermaster or of the commissary departments, respectively, for the use of the Army. All other property abandoned or captured or seized as aforesaid shall be delivered to the agent appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury.
The officer receiving or turning over such property shall give the usual and necessary invoices, receipts, or vouchers therefor, and shall make regular returns thereof, as prescribed by the Army Regulations. The receipts of the agents of the Treasury Department shall be vouchers for all property delivered to them, and whenever called upon by the agent of the Treasury Department authorized to receive such abandoned or captured or seized property as aforesaid, or the proceeds thereof, all persons employed in the military service will give him full information in regard thereto, and if requested by him so to do they shall give him duplicates or copies of the reports and returns thereof and of the receipts, invoices, and vouchers therefor.
And every officer of the Army of the United States hereafter receiving abandoned or captured or seized property, or the proceeds thereof, or under whose order it may be applied to the use of the military forces as aforesaid, shall, upon request of a duly authorized agent of the Treasury Department, render a written report, with invoices thereof, to said agent, in which he will specify the arms, supplies, or other munitions of war retained for the use of the military forces as aforesaid, and also, separately, the property turned over to said agent, or which may have been sold or otherwise disposed of.
And in case a sale of any such property shall be made under his authority or under the authority of any one subject to his order he will so state, and will describe the property so sold, and will state when and where and by and to whom sold, and the amount received therefor, and what disposition was made of the proceeds.
And all officers of the Army of the United States will at all times render to the agents appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury all such aid as may be necessary to enable them to take possession of and transport all such property, so far as can be done without manifest injury to the public service.
III. All commanders of military departments, districts, and posts will, upon receipt of this order, revoke all existing orders within their respective commands conflicting or inconsistent herewith, or which permit or prohibit or in any manner interfere with any trade or transportation conducted under the regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury; and their attention is particularly directed to said regulations, prescribed March 31, 1863, and they will respectively make such orders as will insure strict observance of this order throughout their respective commands.
All expenses of transporting property herein referred to will be reported by the officers of the Quartermaster's Department who furnish such transportation to the agents of the Treasury Department, and also, through the ordinary channels, to the Quartermaster-General at Washington, in order that the said expenses may be reimbursed from the proceeds of sales of such transported property.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 18 (Serial No. 26), p. 580-2
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