GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPARTMENT,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE. Numbers 54.
Richmond, August 1, 1862.

I. The following orders are published for the information and observation of all concerned:

II. Whereas by a general order dated the 22nd of july, issued by the Secretary of War of the United States, under the order of the President of the United Sates, the military commanders of that Government within the Sates of Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas are directed to seize and use any property, real or personal, belonging to the inhabitants of this Confederacy which may be necessary or convenient for their several commands and no provision is made for any compensation to the owners of private property thus seized and appropriated by the military commanders of the enemy;

III. And whereas by General Orders, Numbers 11, issued on the 23rd of July, 1862, by Major General Pope, commanding the forces of the enemy in Northern Virginia, it is ordered that all-

Commanders of army corps, divisions, brigades and detached commands will proceed immediately to arrest all disloyal made citizens within their lines or within their reach in rear of their respective commands. Such are willing to take the oath of allegiance to the United States and will furnish sufficient security for its observance shall be permitted to remain at their homes and pursue in good faith their respective avocations. Those who refuse shall be conducted south beyond the extreme pickets of this army and be notified that if found again anywhere within our lines or at any point in rear they will be considered spies and subject to extreme rigor of military law. If any person having taken the oath of allegiance as above specified be found to have violated it he shall be shot and his property seized and applied to the public use;

IV. And whereas, by an order issued on the 13th of July, 1862, by Brigadier General A. Steinwehr, Major William Stedman, a cavalry officer of his brigade, has been ordered to arrest five of the most prominent citizens of Page County, Va., to be held as hostages and to suffer death in the event of any of the soldiers of said Steinwehr being shot by bushwhackers, by which term are meant the citizens of this Confederacy who have taken up arms to defend their homes and families;

V. And whereas, it results from the above orders that some of the military authorities of the United States not content with the unjust and aggressive warfare hitherto waged with savage cruelty against an unoffending people and exasperated by the failure of their effort toe subjugate them have now determined to violate all the rules and usages of war and to convert the hostilities hitherto waged against armed forces into a campaign of robbery and murder against unarmed citizens and peaceful tillers of the soil;

VI. And whereas, this Government, bound by the highest obligations of duty to its citizens, is thus driven to the necessity of adopting such measures of retribution and retaliate adequate to repress and punish these barbarities; and whereas the orders above recited have only been published and made known to this Government since the signature of a cartel for exchange of prisoners hereafter captured would never have been signed or agreed to by this Government if the intention to change the war into a system of indiscriminate murder and robbery had been made known to it; and whereas, a just regard to humanity forbids that the repression of crime which this Government is thus compelled to enforce should be unnecessarily extended to retaliation on the enlisted men in the army of the United States who may be the unwilling instruments of the savage cruelty of their commanders,