Doc. 41.-General Butler's order, enforcing the confiscation act.
headquarters Department of the Gulf, New-Orleans, November 9, 1862.
General order No. 91.
the Commanding General being informed, and believing, that the district west of the Mississippi River, lately taken possession of by the United States troops, is most largely occupied by persons disloyal to the United States, and whose property has become liable to confiscation under the acts of Congress and the proclamation of the President, and that sales and transfers of said property are being made for the purpose of depriving the Government of the same, has determined, in order to secure the rights of all persons as well as those of the Government, and for the purpose of enabling the crops now growing to be taken care of and secured, and the unemployed laborers to be set at work and provision made for payment for their labor:
To order, as follows:
1. That all the property within the district to be known as the “District of Lafourche,” be and hereby is sequestered, and all sales or transfers thereof are forbidden, and will be held invalid.
2. The district of Lafourche will comprise all the territory in the State of Louisiana lying west of the Mississippi River, except the parishes of Plaquemines and Jefferson.
3. That
Major Jos. M. Bell, Provost-Judge, President,
Lieut.-Col. J. B. Kinsman, A. D.C.,
Capt. Fuller, (Seventy-fifth New-York volunteers,) Provost-Marshal of the district, be a commission to take possession of the property in said district, to make an accurate inventory of the same, and to gather up and collect all such personal property, and to turn over to the proper officers, upon their receipts, such of said property as may be required for the use of the United States army, to collect together all the other personal property, and to bring the same to New-Orleans, and cause it to be sold at public auction to the highest bidders, and after deducting the necessary expenses of care, collection, and transportation, to hold the proceeds thereof subject to the just claims of loyal citizens and those neutral foreigners who, in good faith, shall appear to be the owners of the same.
4. Every loyal citizen or neutral foreigner who shall be found in actual possession and ownership of any property in said district, not having acquired the same by any title since the eighteenth day of September last, may have his property returned or delivered to him without sale, upon establishing his condition to the judgment of the commission.
5. All sales made by any person not a loyal citizen or foreign neutral, since the eighteenth day of September, shall be held void, and all sales whatever, made with the intent to deprive the Government of its rights of confiscation, will be held void, at what time soever made.
6. The commission is authorized to employ in working the plantation of any person who has remained quietly at his home, whether he be loyal or disloyal, the negroes who may be found in said district, or who have, or may hereafter claim the protection of the United States, upon the terms set forth in a memorandum of a contract heretofore offered to the planters of the parishes of Plaquemines and St. Bernard, or white labor may be employed at the election of the commission.
7. The commissioners will cause to be purchased such supplies as may be recessary, and convey them to such convenient depots as to supply the planters in the making of the crop, which supplies will be charged against the crop manufactured, and shall constitute a lien thereon.
8. The commissioners are authorized to work for the account of the United States such plantations as are deserted by their owners, or are held
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by disloyal owners, as may seem to them expedient, for the purpose of saving the crops.
9. Any persons who have not actually been in arms against the United States since the occupation of New-Orleans by its forces, and who shall remain peaceably upon their plantations, affording no aid or comfort to the enemies of the United States, and who shall return to their allegiance, and who shall, by all reasonable methods, aid the United States when called upon, may be empowered by the commission to work their own plantations, make their own crop, and to retain possession of their own property, except such as is necessary for the military uses of the United States.
And to all such persons the commission are authorized to furnish means of transportation for their crops and supplies, at just and equitable prices.
10. The commissioners are empowered and authorized to hear, determine, and definitely report upon all questions of the loyalty, disloyalty, or neutrality of the various claimants of property within said district; and further, to report such persons as in their judgment ought to be recommended by the Commanding General to the President for amnesty and pardon, so that they may have their property returned; to the end that all persons that are loyal may suffer as little injury as possible, and that all persons who have been heretofore disloyal, may have opportunity now to prove their loyalty and to return to their allegiance, and save their property from confiscation, if such shall be the determination of the Government of the United States.
By command of 