SHORT NOTES and NOTICES
General Orders
An inquiry has been very general among the troupe of this command for the famous General order No. 11, current series of this Department. We reprint it for the gratification of all concerned, merely adding that it is in full force and effect. True, the Northern newspapers published what purported to be a disavowal of the President of the United States of Gen. Hunter's action in this particular matter, but we learn that no official notification of that disavowal has been received.
GENERAL ORDERS.—NO. 11.
HEAD-QUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, HILTON HEAD, S. C. May 9, 1862.
The three States of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, comprising the Military Department of the South, having deliberately declared themselves no longer under the protection of the United States of America, and having taken up arms against the said United States, it becomes a military necessity to declare them under martial law. This was accordingly done on the 25th day of April, 1862. Slavery and martial law in a free country are altogether incompatible. The persons in these three States—Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida—heretofore held as slaves, are therefore declared forever free.
DAVID HUNTER, Major-General Commanding. ED. W. SMITH, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.
From the New South newspaper, 1862, August 23, Saturday, Page 4
