The following order, issued by the
Federal Commandant of the Department of the South, recently fell into the hands of an officer on the
South Carolina coast, by whom it was sent to
Adjutant Gen. Cooper.
No comment upon such an order is required:
Headq'rs Department of the South, Hilton head, port Royal, S. C., Aug. 19, 1862.
General Order, No. 27.
- I. The 7th Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers, Col. Putnam, will be held in readiness to embark for Saint Augustine, Florida, of which place it will hereafter form the garrison. * * * *
- II.
It is with deep regret that the General commanding this department has received several reports against officers for returning fugitive slaves in direct violation of a law of Congress.
It will hardly be believed when it is announced, that a New England Colonel is to- day, in the second year of the rebellion, in arrest for having been engaged in the manly task of turning over a young woman, whose skin was almost as white as his own, to the eyelash of her rebel master!
- III.
Numerous acts of pilfering from the negroes have taken place in the neighborhood of Beaufort, committed by men wearing the uniform of the United States; I cannot and will not disgrace the name by calling them soldiers.
To enable General Saxton to have these petty thieves arrested, and sent to this post for punishment, the three companies of the 4th regiment New Hampshire volunteers, now at Beaufort, will be placed exclusively under his command for service on the plantations.
- IV.
All the furniture left by the rebels on the Island, including that left in the city of Beaufort, is hereby placed under the exclusive jurisdiction of Gen. Saxton.
