WASHINGTON, May 6, 1862.

JOHN TUCKNER, Esq., Fort Monroe:

Please detain until further orders all the transportation that may be at Fort monroe, Shipping Point, or elsewhere in that vicinity, and report how much transportation there is fit for a movement upon Charleston, S. C., and how much there is fit for any other purpose. Give this immediate attention.

EDWIN M. STANTON.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE SOUTH, Numbers 11.
Hilton Head, Port Royal, S. C., May 9, 1862.

The three States of Georgia, florida, and South Carolina, comprising the Military Department of the South, having deliberately declared themselves no longer under the protection of the United States of America, and having taken up arms against said United States, it became a military necessity to declare martial law. This wa accordingly done on the 25th day of April, 1862. Slavery and martial law in a free country are altogether incompatible; the persons in these three States, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, heretofore haled as slaves, are therefore declared forever free.*

By command of Major General D. Hunter:

[ED. W. SMITH,]

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

WAR DEPT., QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., May 10, 1862.

Captain C. E. FULLER,

Assistant Quartermaster Volunteers, Port Royal, S. C.:

CAPTAIN: A copy of your letter of the 3rd instant to Colonel Tompkins, assistant quartermaster-general, New York, has been forwarded to this office, in which you state, "It is proposed to have the steamers Ben De Fort, McClellan, and Atlantic run a weekly line between Port Royal and New York," &c., and that by direction of General Benham, commanding, you sent the Ben De Fort to New York on the 3rd instant, ordering her to leave that port on Wednesday, May, 14, unless some great emergency or unavoidable accident occurs.

The authority of the military commander at Port Royal does not extend to steamers in New York Harbor.

you should discharge the loads of the expensive steamers at Port Royal as rapidly as possible and hasten them back to new York, where they will be subjected to the order of the Quartermaster's Department, to return to Port Royal or not, as the general public service may require.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

M. C. MEIGS,

Quartermaster-General.

HEADQUARTERS,
Edisto Island, South Carolina, May 15, 1862.

Colonel J. H. JACKSON,

Commanding Third Regiment New Hampshire Infantry (Mitchell's):

Corporal Wertz, "the old scout," has just come in with a report that

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* That correspondence resulting from this order will be printed in

Series III, Vol. II.

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