GENERAL ORDERS, } ADJT. AND INSP. GENERALâS OFFICE, August 27, 1864
No. 69. { Richmond, Va., August 27, 1864. I. The Bureau of Conscription will cause to be delivered from the proper officers of the Bureau to the chief commissary in every State a report containing the names of all the persons in the State, with
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the places of their residence, who have obtained exemptions or details as agriculturists, owners, overseers, managers, farmers, planters, or otherwise, as producers of grain or provisions, under the fourth paragraph of the tenth section of the military act of the 17th of February, 1864, published in General Orders, No. 26, current series, together with a statement of the terms of the contract, the sureties to the same, and with all other pertinent facts relating to the said exemption or detail. The officers of the Subsistence Department, under the direction of the Commissary-General and chief commissary of each State, are charged with the collection of the meat which any exempt or detailed men may have contracted to pay, and to give an acquittance therefor; also to make whatever commutations or reductions that may be authorized by the act whenever the conditions are established that justify the same, and to make all the purchases of the marketable surplus at the prices specified in the act, which the same authorizes to be made on behalf of the Government, the said Subsistence Department being hereby clothed with authority to represent the Government in the enforcement of its claims under the contracts and obligations that the act imposes upon the exempts and detailed men described therein.
II. In order that tthe regulation on the subject of the sale of the marketable surplus of the provisions and grain to the Government and the families of soldiers in the said act may have execution, the commissaries in the different States may be instructed to limit their purchases of grain and provisions of the marketable surplus in any district to some definite proportion, not to exceed one-half, and to leave the remainder for the persons who purchase on behalf of the families of soldiers.
Ill. All agents appointed by the public authorities of any State, county, or town to supply food for the families of soldiers are authorized to purchase the portion unappropriated by the Government for the object of their trust. The commanders of conscripts or the chief commissary of each State or district may authenticate the authority of such agents, and persons selling to agents thus authenticated shall be fully warranted to do so.
IV. The families of soldiers as described in the said act are the families composed of the wife or wife and children of any person who belongs to the Army; the widow or widow and children of any person who died while in the service; the mother and sisters of any soldier or soldiers in the Army and who resided with them as members in the same family or were dependent upon their labor or support; the parents or sisters of any person belonging to the Army who resided in the same family with them and who derived from them support.
V. Officers are authorized to purchase necessary subsistence for their families under this act.
VI. Every exempt and detailed man under this act shall render to the enrolling officer in his district a detailed statement of the marketable surplus produced and sold by him, with tesfimony that the sales were to the Government or to soldiers’ families, which statement shall be sent to the commander of conscripts for the State, and thereupon satisfaction upon his bond shall be entered.
VII. The act of Congress aforesaid provides that exemptions in favor of the classes aforesaid shall cease whenever the farmer, planter, or overseer shall fail diligently to employ in good faith his own skill, capital, and labor exclusively in the production of grain and provisions, to be sold to the Government and the families of soldiers at
prices not exceeding those fixed at the time for like articles by the commissioners of the State under the impressment act. It has been represented to the Department that there are instances of persons exempt or detailed under this act who pay but little respect to the obligations they have contracted; that they have become speculators in food and provisions; that they are negligent and careless as to the extent of their productions, and openly affirm that they do not mean to have any surplus. The Department is required in all such or similar cases to revoke the detail, and the performance of this duty is devolved upon the Bureau of Conscription, upon proper testimony being afforded to them or to their officers to be designated by them to perform this duty.
By order: S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.