GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, Numbers 38.
New Orleans, March 22, 1864.

In pursuance of the provisions of General Orders, Numbers 23, current series, for the regimental instruction of the freedmen of this department, placing within their reach the elements of knowledge which give intelligence and greater value to labor, reducing the provisions necessary therefor to an economical and efficient school system, it is ordered that a board of education, consisting of three persons, be hereby constituted, with the following duties and powers:

1. To establish one or more common schools in each and every school district that has been or may be defined by the parish provost-marshals and under orders of the provost-marshal- general.

2. To acquire, by purchase or otherwise, tracts of land, which shall be judged by the Board necessary and suitable for school sites, in planation districts, to be not less than one- half acre in extent; to hold the same in trust for themselves until such schools shall have been established, when they shall transfer all the right and title thereto that may have vested in them to the superintendent of public institutions, or other competent States authority.

3. To erect upon said plots of land such school-houses and they may judge necessary and proportioned to the wants of the population of the district where there are no buildings available and proper for school purposes. And in this, as in all tier other duties, they shall exercises the strictest economy.

4. To select and employ proper teachers for said schools, as far as practicable, from the loyal inhabitants of Louisiana, with power to require their attendance for the purpose of instruction in their duties one week at least at a normal school to be conducted by the Board.

5. To purchase and provide the necessary books, stationary, and apparatus for the use of such schools, and, i, addition thereto, to purchase and furnished an outfit of a well- selected library, &c., for each freed person in the several school districts who is above the age of attending school duty, at a cost to each, including a case to contain the same, not exceeding $2.50, which sum shall be included in the general tax hereinafter provided, but shall be deducted form the laborer's wages by his employer when such books are furnished.

6. To regulate the course of study, the discipline, the hours of instruction for children on week days, and adults on Sunday,s to require such conformity to their regulations, and such churus and reports from their teachers as they may deem necessary to secure uniformity, thoroughness, and efficiency in said schools.

And for the full accomplishment of these purposes and the performance of the duties enjoined upon them, the Board shall have full power and authority to assess and level a school tax upon real and personal property, including corps of plantations, in each and every before-mentioned schooled district. The said taxes so levied shall be sufficient in amount to defray the cost and expense of establishing, furnishing, and conducting for the period of one year the school or schools so established in each and every of the said districts; and said taxes shall be collected from the person or persons in the occupation of the property assessed.

8. The taxes so assumed and levied in and for each district shall be collected and paid over to the Board by the parish provost-marshal

13 R R--SERIES III, VOL IV