Department, but he is compelled to conclude, from the many reports that have reached him, that in many cases these orders have been grossly violated, and are generally but imperfectly observed, and he, therefore, calls the attention of corps and other independent commanders to their requirements, in the confident expectation that he will have the active co-operation of all officers under his command in maintaining the fair fame of this army, and in preventing a repetition of the lawless and disgraceful acts that have recently been committed by persons connected with it.

By command of Major-General Meade:

S. WILLIAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Numbers 64.
Washington, June 11, 1862.

1. All property captured by the army, or seized by any provost-marshal, or taken up estray, or taken from soldiers marching in the enemy's country, will be turned over to the chiefs of the staff departments to which such property would appertain, on duty with the troops, and will be accounted for by them as captured property, and used for the public service, unless claimed by owners and ordered by the commanding officer to be returned. In such case the receipts of the owners to whom the property is delivered will be taken therefor. Provost-marshals will make returns to the Adjutant-General of all such property and of the disposition made of it, accounting on separate returns for ordnance, quartermaster, subsistence, medical stores, &c., furnishing and procuring the usual invoices and receipts, and charging the officers to whom the property has been delivered with the same on the returns.

* * * * * * *

By order of the Secretary of War:

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Numbers 107.
Washington, August 15, 1862.

* * * * * * *

III. The laws of the United States and the general laws of war authorize in certain cases the seizure and conversion of private property for the subsistence, transportation, and other uses of the army; but this must be distinguished from pillage; and the taking of property for public purposes is very different from its conversion to private uses. All property lawfully taken from the enemy, or from the inhabitants of an enemy's country, instantly become public property, and must be used and accounted for as such. The Fifty-second Article of War authorizes the penalty of death for pillage or plundering, and other articles authorize severe punishments for any officer or soldier who shall sell, embezzle, misapply, or waste military stores, or who shall permit the waste or misapplication of any such public property. The penalty is the same whether the offense be committed in our own or in an enemy's territory.

IV. All property, public or private, taken from alleged enemies must be inventoried and duly accounted for. If the property taken be claimed as private receipts must be given to such claimants or their