190 



COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE. 



Kentucky were annulled and abrogated, and 

 all products and goods were allowed to be 

 freely brought within those States as in time 

 of peace ; but no goods were allowed to pass 

 from these States into any State declared to be 

 in insurrection. 



Any person residing within an insurrection- 

 ary State was allowed freely to bring any 

 goods or products for sale to any place where 

 a supervising special agent of the Treasury was 

 located. It was further ordered that, 



Whenever the owner of said goods and products 

 shall not reside within the lines of national military 

 occupation, such goods and products shall be sold by 

 the supervising special agent, or assistant special 

 agent ; and all such sales of goods and products shall 

 take place on Monday of each week, at the place of 

 receipt, and shall include all complete lots on hand 

 at the time of the sale ; and the supervising special 

 agent, or the assistant special agent, as the case may 

 be, shall pay to said owner or his agent, if the said 

 owner shall have taken oath, and is not excepted 

 from said amnesty, nor prove disloyal or hostile, 

 twenty-five per cent, of the gross proceeds of said 

 sales, and shall pay the remainder of said proceeds 

 after deducting the necessary and proper expenses 

 of sale, and one per cent, as his additional compen- 

 sation, into the Treasury of the United States, and 

 shall give the owner of each lot sold, or his agent, a 

 receipt or certificate describing the property. 



All sales, whether private or public, shall be for 

 notes of the United States or Treasury notes, exclu- 

 sively, and all proceeds of goods and products paid 

 into the Treasury under the foregoing resolution 

 shall be restored without interest to the owner of the 

 goods and products sold, in case he shall establish, 

 on return of peace and the full practical restoration 

 of the authority of the Union, his title to said goods 

 and products, and that since the sales thereof he has 

 conducted himself in all respects as a good and loyal 

 citizen of the United States, and has done nothing 

 inconsistent with the terms of the oath prescribed 

 by the President's Proclamation of Amnesty. 



Nothing in either of the foregoing additional regu- 

 lations shall authorize the conveyance of supplies 

 beyond the lines of military occupation, or, except 

 under the regulations of September 11, 1863, within 

 said lines. 



By a proclamation of the President the port 

 of Brownsville, in Texas, was opened to trade 

 on February 18th, and the ports of Norfolk, 

 Virginia, Fernandina and Pensacola, Florida, 

 on December 1st ; and commercial intercourse 

 with them, except for persons and things and 

 information contraband of war, authorized. 



On the 10th of May, Gen. Washburn, at 

 Memphis, issued the following order : 



HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE, ) 

 MEMPHIS, TENN., May 10, 1864. f 

 General Orders No. 4. 



The practical operation of commercial intercourse 

 from this city with the States in rebellion has been 

 to help largely to feed, clothe, arm, and equip our 

 enemies. Memphis has been of more value to the 

 Southern Confederacy since it fell into Federal 

 hands, than Nassau. To take cotton belonging to 

 the rebel government to Nassau, or any other foreign 

 port, is a hazardous proceeding. To take it tc Mem- 

 phis and convert it into supplies and greenbacks and 

 return to the lines of the enemy, or place the pro- 

 ceeds to the credit of the rebel government in Eu- 

 rope, without passing again the rebel lines, is safe 

 and easy. I have undoubted evidence that large 

 amounts of cotton have been, and are being brought 

 here to be sold, belonging to the rebel government. 



The past and present system of trade has given 

 strength to the rebel army, while it has demoralized 

 and weakened our own. It has invited the enemy to 

 hover around Memphis as his best base of supply, 

 when otherwise he would have abandoned the coun- 

 try. It renders of practical non-effect the blockade 

 upon the ocean, which has cost and is costing so 

 many millions. It opens our lines to the spies of 

 the enemy, and renders it next to impossible to exe- 

 cute anv military plan without its becoming known 

 to him long enough in advance for him to prepare 

 for it. 



The facts here stated are known to every intelli- 

 gent man in Memphis. What is the remedy for these 

 great and overshadowing evils ? Experience shows 

 that there can be but one remedy, and that is total 

 prohibition of all commercial intercourse with the 

 States in rebellion. 



It is therefore ordered : That on and after the 15th 

 of May, 1864, the lines of the Army at Memphis be 

 closed, and no person will be permitted to leave the 

 city, except by river, without a special pass from 

 these headquarters after that date. All persons de- 

 sirous of coming into the city will be permitted to 

 do so, but should be notified by the pickets that they 

 will not be allowed to return. All persons who de- 

 sire to leave the city to go beyond our lines, must 

 do so before the loth inst. 



By order of Mai. -Gen. C. C. WASHBURX, 



WM. fl. MORGAN, Ass't Adj.-Gen. 



A similar order was issued by Col. Farrar, 

 at Natchez, and by Gen. Sherman, at Vicks- 

 burg. It was asserted that similar results fol- 

 lowed the trade at Helena, Little Rock, Hud- 

 son, Baton Rouge, Plaquemine, Donaldsonville, 

 and New Orleans. The amount of trade 

 through the lines at all these points with the 

 isolated localities where trade stores were situ- 

 ated, was estimated at not less than a half mil- 

 lion dollars daily. It was further asserted that 

 Memphis was of as much advantage to the 

 enemy as Wilmington. At the mouth of 

 White River, where there was only a wood- 

 yard and a small garrison for its protection, a 

 trade store had a business of nearly one hun- 

 dred thousand dollars per month. At Milli- 

 ken's Bend, where there was a small force of 

 negroes for the protection of the plantations in 

 the vicinity, and only one white family living 

 within the lines, a trade store had a business 

 of a thousand dollars per day. This occurred 

 at other points on the river wherever any pre- 

 tence could be found for setting up a store. 

 Numerous small steamers were also allowed to 

 move up and down on trading excursions. It 

 was a matter of notoriety that these boats were 

 on the best of terms with the guerrillas, and 

 other rebel cavalry that they encountered, and 

 oftentimes the rebel officers and soldiers visited 

 the boats and opened direct trade for supplies 

 in exchange for cotton. Gen. Washburn found 

 that these boats were in many instances fur- 

 nishing arms, ammunition, and medicines to 

 the enemy, and on one occasion a trading boat 

 ferried a rebel battery across the river, and re- 

 ceived $2,000 in gold as compensation for so 

 doing. 



Notwithstanding individuals might pervert 

 this trade, there is no doubt that a large bod} 

 of Union inhabitants would have suffered ex- 

 tremely except for the aid thus derived, an<7 



