SLAVES. 





of the negroes had also become deplorable. 

 The General is entitled to much credit for his 

 motives, although the attempt to reform the 

 inveterate conjugal habits of the negro, by a 

 military order, may prove a task beyond his 

 power. 



HEADQUARTERS, BEAUFORT, 8. C., I 



Ait . . J 



I. In the hope of correcting a wide-spread and de- 

 plorable evil, the following regulations are announced : 



1st Any negro claiming to have or charged with 

 having more than one wife, is required to confine him- 

 self to, and, if need be, support that one to whom 

 he has been lawfully married. If no such marriage has 

 ever been celebrated, he will select that one of his so- 

 called wives who is the mother of his children, if any 

 he have ; and, after a marriage service duly performed 

 by some minister of the Gospel, take her to himself as 

 his own sole lawful wife. 



2d. Hereafter any of the colored people wishing to 

 be united in holy wedlock will apply to Rev. M. French, 

 chaplain U. S. Army, or other minister, who will keep 

 a register of marriages and furnish the parties with a 

 marriage certificate duly authenticated. 



3d. All negroes, male or female, hereafter living in 

 a state of concubinage, or found unfaithful to their 

 marriage vows, will be liable to arrest and imprison- 

 ment. 



II. There being on every plantation more or less 

 persons unable to support themselves, and having no 

 near relative to whom the duty can be assigned of pro- 

 viding for their wants, a charitable fund will be estab- 

 lished on each plantation, by deducting from the 

 amount due for labor thereon such percentage as may 

 be found, upon trial, sufficient for the purpose. 



The fund thus created will be placed m the hands of 

 the superintendent, to be expended by him for the 

 benefit of the helpless and friendless, in providing 

 them with suitable food and clothing, either according 

 to the directions of the surgeon in attendance, or in 

 obedience to the suggestions of his own common sense 

 and experience. A proper account of the expenditures 

 under this head will be furnished monthly to the assist- 

 ant quartermaster at these headquarters. 



III. This order will be read by the superintendents 

 to the negroes on every plantation, and care taken to 

 explain its provisions so that they may be fully under- 

 stood as designed to secure and regulate the perfor- 

 mance of duties which are enjoined by the plainest 

 dictates of a mere worldly experience as well as by the 

 subhmer teachings of a living Christianity. 



By order of Brig.-Gen. SAXTOX, Commanding. 



The efforts in North Carolina were equally 

 unsuccessful. 



The negroes near Fortress iionroe, made a 

 better use of their advantages. The military 

 commission to examine into their condition, 

 stated that by the report of the provost mar- 

 shal at Camp" Hamilton, it appears that for the 

 five mon'hs ending 1st January, 1862, he had 

 drawn rations amounting to about 383 per day, 

 which were issued to about 650 women and 

 children, and old infirm men, all of whom re- 

 turned little or no equivalent to the Govern- 

 ment. But since the 1st of January, the ra- 

 tions issued there have not exceeded seventy, 

 and for part of the time were less than forty per 

 day. As a consequence the negroes have been 

 thrown very much upon their own exertions 

 to provide for themselves : and the commission 

 of inquiry do not find that any amount of suf- 

 fering has ensued ; but in many instances the 

 effort at self-support has been successful and 

 improving. 



Schools have been in successful operation at 

 Camp Hamilton undi : 

 assisted by oth' 

 whore children and adults 

 in reading, writing, ai 



nietic; also rclL'inii- in-;: 1 m*ting 



were regularly held on Sunday and stated even- 

 ring the I 



Another measure undertaken, in order to put 

 the negroes to a useful purpose, was to organize 

 the able-bodied sol- 



diers. The most conspicuous friends of the 

 negroes, who have lng urged th- 

 have doubtle.-* hoped that so much mi 

 spirit might thereby be infused into . 

 able number as to qualify them to strii-. 

 the emancipation of their r 



On the Oth of June resolutions of inquiry rel- 

 ative to the organization of a 

 in South Carolina were offered in the House 

 of ^Representatives in Congress, and ad 

 soon after. The resolution was r. 

 Gen. Hunter by the secretary, who replied as 

 follows : 



HEADQUARTERS. DEPARTMENT OF THK SOUTH. } 

 PORT ROYAL (S. C.\ June 23, IMS. J 



Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington: 



SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 

 a communication from the adjutant general of the 

 army, dated June 13, 1502, requesting me to furnUh 

 you "with the information necessary to answer certain 

 resolutions introduced in the House of Representatives, 

 June 9, 1S62, on motion of the Hon. Mr. Wickliffe, of 

 Kentucky, their substance being to inquire 



1st. Whether I had organized or was organizing a 

 regiment of" fugitive slaves" in this department ? 



2d. Whether any authority had been given to me 

 from the War Department for such organization and 



3d. Whether I had been furnished by order of the 

 War Department with clothing, uniforms, arms, equip- 

 ments, Ac., for such a force? 



To the first question, therefore, I reply that no regi- 

 ment of " fugitive slaves " has being or is being or- 

 ganized in this department. There is. however, a fine 

 regiment of persons whose late masters are " fugitive 

 rebels "men who everywhere fly before the appear- 

 ance of the national flag", leaving their servants behind 

 them to shift as best they can for themselves. So far 

 indeed are the loyal persons composing this regiment 

 from seeking to avoid the presence of their late own- 

 ers, that they are now, one and all, wording with re- 

 markable industry to place themselves in a position to 

 go in full and effective pursuit of their fugacious and 

 traitorous proprietors. 



To the second question I have the honor to ansn 

 that the instructions given to Brig.-Gen. T. W. Sher- 

 man, by the Hon. Simon Cameron, late Secretary of 

 War, and turned over to me by succession for my guid- 

 ance, do distinctly authorize me to mploy all loyal 

 persons offering their services in defence of the Union 

 and for the suppression of this rebellion, in any man 

 I might see fit, or that the circumstance s might call for. 

 There is no restriction as to the character or cotor 01 

 the persons to be employed, or the nature of I 

 plovment. whether civil or military, m whi< 

 services should be used. I conclude, therefoi 

 have been authorized to enlist "fugitive sl 



