GENERAL ORDERS No. 111.
ADJT. AND INSP.
GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Richmond, December 24,
1862.
I. The following proclamation of the President is published
for the information and guidance of all concerned therein:
BY THE PRESIDENT
OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas a communication was addressed on the 6th day of July
last (1862) by General Robert E. Lee, acting under the instructions of the
Secretary of War of the Confederate States of America, to General H. W.
Halleck, General-in-Chief of the U. S. Army, informing the latter that a report
had reached this Government that William B. Mumford, a citizen of the
Confederate States, had been executed by the U. S. authorities at New Orleans
for having pulled down the U. S. flag in that city before its occupation by the
forces of the United States, and calling for a statement of the facts with a
view to retaliation if such an outrage had really been committed under sanction
of the authorities of the United States;
And whereas (no answer having been received to said letter)
another letter was on the 2d August last (1862) addressed by General Lee under
my instructions to General Halleck renewing the inquiry in relation to the said
execution of said Mumford, with the information that in the event of not
receiving a reply within fifteen days it would be assumed that the fact alleged
was true and was sanctioned by the Government of the United States;
And whereas an answer, dated on the 7th August last (1862)
was addressed to General Lee by General H. W. Halleck, the said
General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States, alleging sufficient cause
for failure to make early reply to said letter of 6th July, asserting that “no
authentic information had been received in relation to the execution of
Mumford, but measures will be immediately taken to ascertain the facts of the
alleged execution,” and promising that General Lee should be duly informed
thereof;
And whereas on the 29th November last (1862) another letter
was addressed under my instructions by Robert Ould, Confederate agent for the
exchange of prisoners under the cartel between the two Governments, to Lieut.
Col. W. H. Ludlow, agent of the United States under said cartel, informing him
that the explanations promised in the said letter of General Halleck of 7th
August last had not yet been received, and that if no answer was sent to the
Government within fifteen days from the delivery of this last communication it
would be considered that an answer is declined;
And whereas by letter dated on the 3d day of the present
month of December the said Lieutenant-Colonel Ludlow apprised the said Robert
Ould that the above-recited communication of 29th of November had been received
and forwarded to the Secretary of War of the United States;
And whereas this last delay of fifteen days allowed for
answer has elapsed and no answer has been received;
And whereas in addition to the tacit admission resulting
from the above refusal to answer I have received evidence fully establishing
the truth of the fact that the said William B. Mumford, a citizen of this
Confederacy, was actually and publicly executed in cold blood by hanging after
the occupation of the city of New Orleans by the forces under the command of
General Benjamin F. Butler when said Mumford was an unresisting and
non-combatant captive, and for no offense even alleged to have been committed
by him subsequent to the date of the capture of the said city;
And whereas the silence of the Government of the United
States and its maintaining of said Butler in high office under its authority
for many months after his commission of an act that can be viewed in no other
light than as a deliberate murder, as well as of numerous other outrages and
atrocities hereafter to be mentioned, afford evidence only too conclusive that
the said Government sanctions the conduct of said Butler and is determined that
he shall remain unpunished for his crimes:
Now therefore I, Jefferson Davis, President of the
Confederate States of America, and in their name do pronounce and declare the
said Benjamin F. Butler to be a felon deserving of capital punishment. I do
order that he be no longer considered or treated simply as a public enemy of
the Confederate States of America but as an outlaw and common enemy of mankind,
and that in the event of his capture the officer in command of the capturing
force do cause him to be immediately executed by hanging; and I do further
order that no commissioned officer of the United States taken captive shall be
released on parole before exchange until the said Butler shall have met with
due punishment for his crimes.
And whereas the hostilities waged against this Confederacy
by the forces of the United States under the command of said Benjamin F. Butler
have borne no resemblance to such warfare as is alone permissible by the rules
of international law or the usages of civilization but have been characterized
by repeated atrocities and outrages, among the large number of which the
following may be cited as examples:
Peaceful and aged citizens, unresisting captives and
non-combatants, have been confined at hard labor with balls and chains attached
to their limbs, and are still so held in dungeons and fortresses. Others have
been subjected to a like degrading punishment for selling medicines to the sick
soldiers of the Confederacy.
The soldiers of the United States have been invited and
encouraged by general orders to insult and outrage the wives, the mothers and
the sisters of our citizens.
Helpless women have been torn from their homes and subjected
to solitary confinement, some in fortresses and prisons and one especially on
an island of barren sand under a tropical sun; have been fed with loathsome
rations that had been condemned as unfit for soldiers, and have been exposed to
the vilest insults.
Prisoners of war who surrendered to the naval forces of the
United States on agreement that they should be released on parole have been
seized and kept in close confinement.
Repeated pretexts have been sought or invented for plundering
the inhabitants of the captured city by fines levied and exacted under threat
of imprisoning recusants at hard labor with ball and chain.
The entire population of the city of New Orleans have been
forced to elect between starvation, by the confiscation of all their property,
and taking an oath against conscience to bear allegiance to the invaders of
their country.
Egress from the city has been refused to those whose
fortitude withstood the test, even to lone and aged women and to helpless
children; and after being ejected from their homes and robbed of their property
they have been left to starve in the streets or subsist on charity.
The slaves have been driven from the plantations in the
neighborhood of New Orleans till their owners would consent to share the crops
with the commanding general, his brother Andrew J. Butler, and other officers;
and when such consent had been extorted the slaves have been restored to the
plantations and there compelled to work under the bayonets of guards of U. S.
soldiers.
Where this partnership was refused armed expeditions have
been sent to the plantations to rob them of everything that was susceptible of
removal, and even slaves too aged or infirm for work have in spite of their
entreaties been forced from the homes provided by the owners and driven to
wander helpless on the highway.
By a recent general order (No. 91) the entire property in
that part of Louisiana lying west of the Mississippi River has been
sequestrated for confiscation and officers have been assigned to duty with
orders to gather up and collect the personal property and turn over to the
proper officers upon their receipts such of said property as may be required
for the use of the U. S. Army; to collect together all the other personal property
and bring the same to New Orleans and cause it to be sold at public auction to
the highest bidders” – an order which if executed condemns to punishment by
starvation at least a quarter of a million of human beings of all ages, sexes
and conditions; and of which the execution although forbidden to military
officers by the orders of President Lincoln is in accordance with the
confiscation law of our enemies which he has directed to be enforced through
the agency of civil officials. And finally the African slaves have not only
been excited to insurrection by every license and encouragement but numbers of
them have actually been armed for a servile war – a war in its nature far
exceeding in horrors the most merciless atrocities of the savages.
And whereas the officers under the command of the said
Butler have been in many instances active and zealous agents in the commission
of these crimes, and no instance is known of the refusal of any one of them to
participate in the outrages above narrated;
And whereas the President of the United States has by public
and official declaration signified not only his approval of the effort to
excite servile war within the Confederacy but his intention to give aid and
encouragement thereto if these independent States shall continue to refuse
submission to a foreign power after the 1st day of January next, and has thus
made known that all appeals to the laws of nations, the dictates of reason and
the instincts of humanity would be addressed in vain to our enemies, and that
they can be deterred from the commission of these crimes only by the terms of
just retribution:
Now therefore I, Jefferson Davis, President of the
Confederate States of America and acting by their authority, appealing to the
Divine Judge in attestation that their conduce is not guided by the passion of
revenge but that they reluctantly yield to the solemn duty of repressing by
necessary severity crimes of which their citizens are the victims, do issue
this my proclamation, and by virtue of my authority as Commander-in-Chief of
the Armies of the Confederate States do order—
1. That all commissioned officers in the command of said
Benjamin F. Butler be declared not entitled to be considered as soldiers
engaged in honorable warfare but as robbers and criminals deserving death, and
that they and each of them be whenever captured reserved for execution.
2. That the private soldiers and non-commissioned officers
in the army of said Butler be considered as only the instruments used for the
commission of the crimes perpetrated by his orders and not as free agents; that
they therefore be treated when captured as prisoners of war with kindness and
humanity and be sent home on the usual parole that they will in no manner aid
or serve the United States in any capacity during the continuance of this war
unless duly exchanged.
3. That all negro slaves captured in arms be at once
delivered over to the executive authorities of the respective States to which
they belong to be dealt with according to the laws of said States.
4. That the like orders be executed in all cases with
respect to all commissioned officers of the United States when found serving in
company with armed slaves in insurrection against the authorities of the different
States of this Confederacy.
In testimony whereof I have signed these presents and caused
the seal of the Confederate States of America to be affixed thereto at the city
of Richmond on this 23d day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-two.
[L. S.]
JEFF'N DAVIS.
By the President:
J. P. BENJAMIN,
Secretary of State.
II. Officers of the Army are charged with the observance and
enforcement of the foregoing orders of the President. Where the evidence is not
full or the case is for any reason of a doubtful character it will be referred
through this office for the decision of the War Department.
By order:
S. COOPER,
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 2, Volume
5 (Serial No. 118), p. 795-7
