GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA, Numbers 77.
Richmond, Va., June 23, 1865.

The laws of the State of Virginia and the ordinances of the different municipalities within the State having especial reference to and made to restrain the personal liberty of free colored persons were designed for the government of such persons while living amid a population of colored slaves; they were enacted in the interests of slave owners, and were designed for the security of slave property; they were substantially parts of the slave code. Slavery has been abolished in Virginia, and therefore, upon the principle that where the reason of the law ceases the law itself ceases, these laws and ordinances have become obsolete. People of color will henceforth enjoy the same personal liberty that other citizens and inhabitants enjoy; they will be subject to the same restraints and to the same punishments for crime that are imposed on whites, and to no others. Vagrancy, however, will not be permitted; neither whites nor blacks can be allowed to abandon their proper occupations, to desert their families, or roam in idleness about this department; but neither whites nor blacks will be restrained from seeking employment elsewhere when they cannot obtain it with just compensation at their homes, nor from traveling from place to place on proper and legitimate business. Until the civil tribunals are re-established the administration of criminal justice must, of necessity, be by military courts. Before such courts he evidence of colored persons will be received in all cases.

By command of Major General A. H. Terry:

ED. W. SMITH,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. OF WASHINGTON,
TWENTY-SECOND ARMY CORPS, Numbers 89.
June 23, 1865.

I. Under instructions contained in Special Orders, Numbers 315, current series, War Department, Adjutant-General's Office, of June 19, 1865, the following field-works are announced as composing the defenses of Washington: North of Potomac-Fort Carroll, Fort Stanton, Fort Baker, Fort Mahan, Fort Lincoln, Fort Totten, Fort Slocum, Fort Stevens, Fort Reno, Fort Sumner, and Fort Foote; south of Potomac- Fort Lyon and Redoubts Weed, Farnsworth and O'Rorke, Fort Ellsworth, Fort Worth, Fort Ward, Fort Richardson, Fort McPherson, Fort Whipple, Fort Morton, Fort C. F. Smith, Fort Ethan Allen, and Battery Rodgers. All other forts, batteries, and block-houses of the defenses of Washington will be at once dismantled, excepting Fort Tillinghast and Fort Craig, which will be maintained until Fort McPherson, immediately in the rear of the positions occupied by them, is so far completed as to receive its armament.

II. Under instructions to be issued through the chief of artillery of the department, and chief engineer of the defenses, division commanders will dispose of all ordnance and ordnance stores belonging to the forts to be dismantled, and make the necessary changes in the armament of the works to be retained.

III. Fort Greble (north of the Potomac) and Fort Corcoran (south of Potomac) will be used temporarily for the storage of such ordnance and ordnance stores as the chief of ordnance may designate.