WAR DEPARTMENT,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, September 19, 1865_.
* * * * *
It has been represented to the Department that commanders of
military posts and districts in Georgia, and particularly Brevet
Brigadier-General C.H. Grosvenor, provost-marshal-general, and Brevet
Major-General King, commanding in the district of Augusta, have assumed
to decide questions of contracts and conflicting claims of property
between individuals, and to order the delivery, surrender, or transfer
of property and documents of title as between private persons, in which
the Government is not concerned.
All such acts and proceedings on the part of military authorities in
said State are declared by the President to be without authority and
null and void.
All military commanders and authorities within said State are strictly
ordered to abstain from any such acts, and not in any way to interfere
with or assume to adjudicate any right, title, or claim of property
between private individuals, and to suspend all action upon any orders
heretofore made in respect to the ownership or delivery of property and
the validity of contracts between private persons.
They are also forbidden from being directly or indirectly interested in
any sales or contracts for cotton or other products of said State, and
from using or suffering to be used any Government transportation for the
transporting of cotton or other products of said State for or in behalf
of private persons on any pretense whatever.
Military officers have no authority to interfere in any way in questions
of sale or contracts of any kind between individuals or to decide any
question of property between them without special instructions from this
Department authorizing their action, and the usurpation of such power
will be treated as a grave military offense.
Major-General Steedman, commanding the Department of Georgia,
is specially charged with the enforcement of this order, and
directed to make report as to any acts, proceedings, or orders
of Brevet Major-General King and Brevet Brigadier-General Grosvenor,
provost-marshal-general, in regard to contracts or conflicting claims
of individuals in relation to cotton or other products, and to suspend
all action upon any such orders until further instructions.
By order of the President of the United States.