[CHAP. XLI.

your operations in the country to the command of which you are assigned:

1. Every precaution must be had to prevent communication between the Maryland and Virginia shores of the Potomac. In order to effect this, patrols should be sent out along the shores from the different posts of your command as far as you may deem it safe. All persons found hovering about the shores of the Potomac should be arrested and made to give an account of themselves. That part of your command not at Chapel Point will be so disposed of as to occupy Liverpool, Chapel, and Lower Cedar, and some point between Wicomico and Cuckhold Rivers, in such force as you may deem sufficient and available. The headquarters of the command will be established at Chapel Point.

2. You will require all strangers who may be found within your command to register their names, residence, and their business in the locality, and to take the oath of allegiance prescribed in Paragraph 2, General Orders, Numbers 53, headquarters Middle Department, and then, if you shall be satisfied of the loyalty of hte party, you will issue a pass, and not otherwise. If any one shall refuse to comply with this requirement, you will require him or her to leave the command immediately, or be detained for further action. In order to effect this the more certainly, you will issue orders, and have them posted in the public places within your command, requiring all strangers and non-residents to report to the nearest office and comply with the regulation above prescribed, and informing all such persons as refuse to report that they will be arrested as suspicious characters.

3. You will use all proper efforts to sustain and carry into effect the policy of the Government in relation to the enlistment of colored troops. Every protection must be afforded to those engaged in reacruiting for this corps, and all persons interfering with these enlistments must be arrested, and the public men made to understand that the Government will not permit any individual, or band of individuals, to thwart its efforts for the suppression of the rebellion and the restoration of the national authority.

4. Whenever negroes give you information of any blockade running or other illegal transactions, and it shall appear to you that by reason of having done so they will be liable to be maltreated or persecuted, you will in all such cases receive and protect the informers. As a general rule, negroes will not be interfered with in their embarkation on the Potomac vessels, unless it shall appear to you that they have been forced by their masters to do so, with a view of taking them to Virginia, or unless the negroes themselves shall intend to violate the blockade.

5. All cases of arrests made must be reported to these headquarters, together with the testimony.

6. You will make timely requisition on the proper staff departments for all necessary supplies, which, together with all your official communications, will be forwarded by mail to Point Lookout, Md.

7. You will keep your men well in hand, and at their posts. No officers or man will be permitted to be absent from his station without authority from department or these headquarters.

8. Until the arrival of cavalry, which it is expected will shortly be sent you, you will impress a limited number of horses from the disloyal inhabitants on which to mount your men when occasion