GENERAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS SOUTHWEST DIVISION, Numbers 15
Springfield, June 16, 1862.

The time has arrived when the most stringent measures must be enforced to repress the lawless and atrocious proceedings of the marauders who infest the southwestern portion of the State, practicing murder and robbery on every side. Not only offenders but all who in any way aid or abet them must be established as will render it impossible for these thieves and assassins to remain undiscovered; and in order to accomplish this object all good citizens are called upon to co-operate with and assist the military authorities in their efforts to punish the guilty and cheerfully submit to such regulations and orders that otherwise would be harsh and severe that are necessary and intended only to protect peaceable and law abiding members of society.

I. It is therefore ordered that all citizens residing within the limits of the southwestern division of the District of Missouri shall at once appear before some properly qualified officer and take the oath of allegiance to the United States of America and to the Provisional Government of the State of Missouri, and receive a certificate thereof, unless they have already done so.

II. Every citizen who fails to obey the above order will be deprived of the ordinary privileges of loyal citizenship. He shall neither hold any office nor be permitted to vote. He shall not be allowed to serve as a juror or appear as a witness. He shall not transact any business, either agricultural, mechanical, or professional. He shall not be permitted to pass at will on the public highway, but as a punishment for the apparent aid and countenance which he extends to the marauders who are preying upon the country he is declared to be a prisoner within the limits of his own premises.

III. The troops stationed in division are instructed to stop and examine all persons whom they find without the limits of their own domiciles, and arrest and convey to the nearest military post all such as cannot show a certificate of having taken the oath of allegiance.

IV. When any citizen lives remote from any established military post, so that it would inconvenience him to travel to the said post for the purpose, he may appear before the nearest commissioned officer of the United States Army, or the nearest notary public or justice of the peace, and take and subscribe to the oath in duplicate, retaining one copy and forwarding the other to the nearest post to be recorded.

V. Nothing in this order will be construed so as to interfere with orders issued from the Department of the Missouri regulating the terms upon which returning rebel soldiers or openly avowed secessionists can make terms of peace with the Government of the United States.

By order of Brigadier General E. B. Brown:

JAS. H. STEGER,

Assistant Adjutant- General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE SOUTHWEST,
Batesville, Ark., June 17, 1862.

Brigadier General M. SCHOFIELD, Saint Louis, Mo.:

GENERAL: My force having been extended to its utmost, and the infantry greatly reduced by sending force to Corinth, the enemy was inspired with a hope to overpower and drive me back. Gunboats and troops were sent back from the Mississippi and Texas.