Orders pertaining to courts and freedmen, 1865 June-1866 June

Location

South Carolina Historical Society (Columbia, S.C.)

Contents

General orders (some signed) issued at Hilton Head, S.C., Charleston, S.C., and Philadelphia, Pa., by command of generals of the Dept. of the South, Dept. of South Carolina, Military Division of the Atlantic, and the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. The orders deal with the establishment and conduct of provost and civil courts, especially in regard to cases involving freedmen; the jurisdiction and powers of military authorities; the protection of "loyal persons", including all officers and soldiers of the U.S. Army charged with "offenses done against the rebel forces" (January 12, 1866); the employment and rights of freedmen. Gen. R.K. Scott's order (June 29, 1866) recognizes the "increasing amount of theft, drunkenness, and vagrancy." The order directs that any freedmen who leave agricultural employment be arrested as vagrants and put to work on public roads, and that a prison be established for "all persons of color" convicted of crimes other than capital offenses.

(See the NUCMC catalog record)

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