RICHARD B. IRWIN,
Assistant Adjutant General.
OFFICIAL:
NATHANIEL BURBANK, Acting Assistant Adjutant General.
General Banks' treatment of the negroes was so very different from that which they had received from Gen. Butler,—displacing the negro officers of the first three regiments organized,—that it rather checkmated recruiting, so much so that he found it necessary to resort to the provost guard to fill up regiments, as the following order indicates:
PROVOST GUARD SECURING CONSCRIPTS.
Compelling all able-bodied men to join the army.
| Commission of Enrollment. | |||
| GENERAL ORDERS | } | HEADQUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF. | |
| No. 64. | } | New Orleans, August 29, 1863. | |
I. Colonel John S. Clark, Major B. Rush Plumly and Colonel George H. Hanks, are hereby appointed a Commission to regulate the Enrollment, Recruiting and Employment and Education of persons of color. All questions concerning the enlistment of troops for the Corps d'Afrique, the regulation of labor, or the government and education of negroes, will be referred to the decision of this commission, subject to the approval of the Commanding General of the Department.
II. No enlistments for the Corps d'Afrique will be authorized or permitted, except under regulations approved by this Commission.
III. The Provost Marshal General will cause to be enrolled all able-bodied men of color in accordance with the Law of Conscription, and such number as may be required for the military defence of the Department, equally apportioned to the different parishes, will be enlisted for the military service under such regulations as the Commission may adopt. Certificates of exemption will be furnished to those not enlisted, protecting them from arrest or other interference, except for crime.