[Inclosure Numbers 2.]

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA, Numbers 10.
New Berne, N. C., May 9, 1864.

So much of the last paragraph of General Orders, Numbers 5, current series, from these headquarters, relative to the destruction and pillage of Washington, N. C., as directs that these orders be "read at the head of the Seventeenth Massachusetts Volunteers and Fifteenth Connecticut Volunteers at dress parade every day for ten consecutive days," is hereby revoked.

By command of Brigadier General I. N. Palmer:

J. A. JUDSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Inclosure Numbers 3.]

CIRCULAR ORDERS,
HDQRS. DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA,

New Berne, N. C., May 30, 1864.

I. Before a board of investigation, of which Colonel James W. Savage, Twelfth New York Volunteer Cavalry, is president, convened at new Berne, N. C., by virtue of Special Orders, Numbers 16, paragraph I, and Special Orders, Numbers 26, paragraph II, current series, from these headquarters, were summoned various persons, officers, soldiers, and citizens, bearing testimony relative to the facts and circumstances connected with the burning of certain portions of the town of Washington, N. C., and the pillage of that place, alleged to have been committed by certain men in the military and naval service of the United States during the late evacuation, from whose testimony the Board of Investigation deduce the following, viz:

At about 11 p. m. on the 26th of April, 1864, Brigadier-General Harland, in command at Washington, N. C., received orders to evacuate that place, and in pursuance of his instructions the post was finally abandoned about 4 p. m. on the 30th. The intended evacuation seems to have become known, or to have been generally suspected, on Wednesday, the 27th of April. During the afternoon of that day there appears to have been instances of theft, and before morning of Thursday pillaging commenced, at first in the quartermaster's store of the First North Carolina (Union) Volunteers, which during the day became general. Government stores, sutlers' establishments, dwelling-houses, private shops, and stables, suffered alike. Gangs of men patrolled the city, breaking into houses and wantonly destroying such goods as they could not carry away. The occupants and owners were insulted and defied in their feeble endeavors to protect their property. The influence and authority of offices, though sufficient to restrain these excesses when they were personally present, wa forgotten or set at naught as soon as they were out of sight, and the sack was checked only by the lack of material to pillage, and ceased only with the final abandonment of the town. It is claimed, and may be true, that some portion of these outrages arose from a general impression that a large amount of stores and property would, upon the abandonment of the place, either be destroyed or left to fall into the hands of the enemy, but this is probably not seriously regarded by any one as a justification, or even palliation, of the utterly lawless and wanton character of the plundering.

The members of the Board, having summoned and examined all those persons within their reach who it was supposed could give any material testimony on the subject, regret that they have been able to identify so few of the individuals concerned in these violations of good order and discipline, but they are of opinion that none of the troops in Washington on the 28th of April last can reasonably claim to escape a share of the shame and odium which the history of those few days has justly caused. These were the Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers, the Twenty-first Connecticut Volunteers, detachments of the Fifteenth Connecticut Volunteers and the Seventeenth Massachusetts Volunteers, two companies of the Fifth Rhode Island Volunteer Artillery, Ransom's New York battery, two companies of the Twelfth New York Cavalry, and the cavalry company of the First North Carolina (Union) Volunteers. Nor were these alone guilty. Sailors from the gun-boats, hands employed on the transports, negroes, and in some instances citizens, joined in the work of plunder and devastation.