Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 
Richmond, November 27, 1862. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ? 
No. 96. \ 
Commandants of Conscripts will cause the following Order to be pub- 
lished for at least seven times, in a sufficient number of newspapers in 
each State of the Confederacy, to insure its reaching every part of the 
country: 
I. All commissioned officers and enlisted men, who are now absent 
from their commands from any other cause than actual disability, or 
duty under orders from the Secretary of War, or from their department 
commanders, will return to their commands without delay. 
11. Commissioned officers failing to comply with the provisions of the 
foregoing paragraph, within a reasonable length of time, in no case to 
exceed twenty days after the publication of this Order, shall be dropped 
from the rolls of the army in disgrace, and their names will be furnished 
to the Commandant of Conscripts for enrollment in the ranks. 
111. All enlisted men who shall fail to comply with the provisions of 
paragraph I of this Order, within a reasonable length of time, shall be 
considered as deserters, and treated accordingly; their names to be fur- 
nished to the Commandant of Conscripts in their State, for publication, 
or such other action as may be deemed most efficacious. 
IY. In order to insure the efficient co-operation of all concerned, to 
cany this order into immediate effect, department commanders are di- 
rected to require from the commanding officer of each separate command, 
in then- departments, a prompt report of the names of all commissioned 
officers and enlisted men now absent from their commands. These re- 
ports must state in each case the cause of absence ; and any regimental, 
battalion or company commander, who shall neglect to furnish such a 
report, or who shall knowingly be guilty of concealing any case of un- 
authorized absence, shall, on conviction thereof, be summarily dismissed. 
V. Under the provisions of the 2d clause of paragraph II of General 
Orders, No. 82, commissioned officers and privates who are incapable of 
bearing arms in consequence of wounds received in battle, but who are 2 
otherwise fit for service, are required, if not otherwise assigned, to report 
to the nearest Commandant of Conscripts in their respective States, who 
will, if they are fitted for such duty, assign them to the collection of 
stragglers and the enforcement of the provisions of this Order, with full 
powers to call upon the nearest military authority for such assistance as 
may be necessary thereto. 
VI. Officers of the Quartermaster’s Department charged rvith payment 
of troops, are hereby directed not to pay any commissioned officer, non- 
commissioned officer or private who does not furnish satisfactory evi- 
dence that he is not liable to the penalties described in the foregoing 
Order. Any disbursing officer who shall make payment in violation of 
this Order, shall be liable on his bond for the amount of such payment. 
order. 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General.