Arkansas. The chief engineer of each district will, under the direction of the chief of the Engineer Bureau, organize them into gangs of 100 each, selecting four of the number as foremen, over whom will be placed one manager and two overseers. Every eight gangs will constitute a section, for which a superintendent will be selected. Should any negro run away the chief engineer of the district will notify the commandant of conscripts of the State, who is required to take such steps immediately, through the enrolling officers, as will secure his return. Should the enrolling officer be satisfied that the runaway negro is lurking in the vicinity of his home he will enroll and forward another negro in his stead. The commandants of slave labor will make monthly reports to the chief of Engineer Bureau of all negroes received and delivered under their direction.

By command of General E. Kirby Smith:

S. S. ANDERSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 76.
Richmond, Va., March 30, 1865.

The attention of the general commanding the Trans-Mississippi Department, and through him that of his subordinates, is directed to complaints in the administration of the act of Congress approved February 6, 1864, imposing regulations upon the commerce of the Confederate States, to provide for the public defense, and of the rules adopted by the President the 11th of March, 1864, concerning the overland trade with Mexico by the military authorities in that department. The act of Congress and the regulation adopted by the President in accordance with the act, and to carry it into execution as to the commerce on the high seas, and the overland trade with Mexico, were designed with a view to secure the application of the cotton, tobacco, military and naval stores, sugar, molasses, and rice to the great object of providing supplies for the Army and necessaries for the people during the continuance of the present war. To accomplish this purpose so much of the trade as might be carried on overland with Mexico was limited to men of approved loyalty and fidelity, and each exporter was required to give bond to invest a certain portion of the net proceeds of the merchandise exported in articles of consumption not prohibited by law, and to import them into the country. The rules adopted by the President were designed to insure the fulfillment of this object. It was not the intention of the Congress, nor is it the design of the regulations, to limit the dominion of the owner of these articles while they remain under his control within the Confederate States. The act of Congress prohibits the exportation of the articles except in accordance with uniform regulations. But if there be no intention to export them from the country, and if there be no reasonable ground for believing that exportation is intended, there is no power given to the Confederate authorities, civil or military, by the act of Congress alluded to interfere with the property.

The act of Congress provides for certain forfeitures and penalties against persons, and for seizure of the articles mentioned in the contingency that certain acts are performed having for their object the violation of the law, and the regulations under similar conditions authorize the interposition of the military authorities to aid in the execution of the law. But the military authorities cannot be too circumspect