SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. NORTHERN DISTRICT, DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, Numbers 50.
Charleston, S. C., March 14, 1865.

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III. Battery A, Third Rhode Island Artillery, now on duty in this district, is hereby relived, and will proceed to Beaufort, S. C., as early as transportation can be furnished.

IV. The Fifty-fourth and Fifty-sixth New York and the Fifty-second Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiments will be put in readiness for immediate embarkation. All the officers detailed from these regiments will be, if within the limits of this disstrict, relieved and returned to regimental duty. Any equipment necessary to put these regiments in a condition to take the filed will be furnished on requisition, which must be immediately forwarded. All surplus supplies not necessary for field service will be furned in, as transportation will be limited, and as the point at which the command will embark is in the vicinity of active operations, trunks, boxes, or furnite will not be taken with the troops.

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By command of Brigadier General John P. Hatch:

LEONARD B. PERRY,
First Lieutenant, Fifty-fifth Mass. Vols., and Actg. Asst. Adjt. General

HDQRS. NORTHERN DISTRICT, DEPT. OF THE SOUTH,

Charleston, S. C., March 14, 1865.

Bvt. Brigadier General A. S. HARTWELL,

Commanding Brigade, Rackersville, S. C.:

GENERAL: In reply to the information solicited by you in your communication to these headquarters of the 13th in regard to passing citizens into and out of our lines, I am instructed by the brigadier-general commanding to inform you that the following rules will be adhered to in passing citizens out of your lines: No citizen will be allowed to pass out of your lines at any time without a pass emanating from the department or district commanders. In allowing citizens to enter the lines you will observe the following rules: First. Citizens (refugees, &c.) who desire after entering to remain within the lines may be admitted. Second. Those who wish to enter the city for the purpose of taking the oath of allegiance may be admitted (in returning those persons must have a proper pass). Third. Those having permission to enter from department or district commanders will be admitted. I would further state that in passing persons out of the lines the guard has no discretionary power whatever; that contrabands will be governed by same regilations as whites, and that the oath of allegiance or certificate of having taken it is no pass, with the exception of the case of refugees entering the lines. All property carried in or out of the lines must be stated on the pass of the person in charge, or on a separate one.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

EDGAR B. VAN WINKLE,

Captain, Chief of Staff, and Aide-de-Camp.