GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. MIL. DIV. OF WEST MISSISSIPPI, Numbers 63.
New Orleans, La., May 29, 1865.

I. Under the authority of the Executive order of April 29, 1865, the limits of military occupation will extended by the commanders of departments and of districts, reporting direct to these headquarters, so as to include all selections of the country east of the Mississippi (within the limits of the division), where the paramount authority of the United States is recognized, and the inhabitants accept in good faith the object of the President's order to "relieve all loyal citizens and well-disposed persons residing in insurrectionary district from unnecessary commercial restrictions, and to encourage them to return to peaceful pursuits", and conform to the conditions prescribed by the order and the regulations made in pursuance of it.

II. All military orders or regulations conflicting with the Executive order or restricting in any degree the commercial intercourse therein authorized are revoked, and the action of military commanders in relation to this intercourse will be limited to giving the agents of the Treasury Department such facilities and assistance in the execution of their duties as may be necessary and proper. All taxes, imposts, or contributions levied by military authority upon any article of commerce, except such as may be absolutely indispensable for police and sanitary purposes, will be discontinued.

III. The benefits intended to be secured by the President's order are contingent, not only upon the disposition, but upon the ability of the inhabitants to maintain peace and order in their own communities, and these benefits will be given or withheld as this disposition and ability may be manifested. In any measure that may be taken by the well-disposed inhabitants for the maintenance of order and quiet, the assistant of the troops will be cheerfully given, but if in any district guerrilla parties, jayhawkers, and other evildoers are countenanced, encouraged, or harbored, all commercial intercourse will not only be interdicted, but the troops sent to repress such disorder will be maintained at the expense of the inhabitants.

By order of Major General E. R. S. Canby:

C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI,
New Orleans, May 29, 1865.

Major General N. P. BANKS,

Commanding Department of the Gulf, New Orleans:

SIR: The major-general commanding directs that all commanding officers within the limits of your department east of the Mississippi be instructed to permit all cotton, by whomsoever possessed, to be brought forward without any military restrictions whatever, and to furnish every facility in the way of transportation, &c., that can be given consistently with the requirements and interests of the service. All search for Confederate cotton will at once cease. This is in accordance with instructions received from the Headquarters of the Army.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.