Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 
GENERAL OKDERS, } 
No. 138. $ 
Richmond, Oct. 24, 1863. 
The following instructions are published for carrying into effect the 9th 
section of the act of 26th March 1863, to regulate impressments, in re- 
spect to labor on fortifications and other public works in states in which 
provisions have not been made on this subject; 
1. The commanding general or the officer of engineers in charge of 
the work, shall have power to decide upon the necessity for making im- 
pressments of slaves for this purpose, after making suitable efforts to 
secure the necessary laborers by contract. He must be satisfied of the 
necessity of the measure before he resorts to it. 
2. He may authorize the impressment of male slaves between the ages 
of seventeen and fifty years, but before the first day of December next 
shall abstain from impressing slaves from plantations exclusively devoted 
to the production of grain and provisions, without the consent of the 
owner, except in cases of urgent necessity. 
3. No impressments shall be made of the slaves employed in the do- 
mestic fyid family service exclusively, nor upon farms or plantations 
where there are not more than three slaves of the age specified, and not 
more than five per cent., of the population of slaves shall be impressed in 
any county at the same time, unless the necessity is very great, and after 
consultation with this department or the governor of the state in which 
the impressment is to be made. 
4. The ordinary period for impressment shall be sixty days, but if the 
owner of any slave shall fail to bring the slaves impressed to the place 
of rendezvous within five days after the time appointed, the slaves so 
withheld may be detained for ninety days, and for a longer term of ten 
days for every day of default, unless a reasonable excuse be given for 
the delays that have occurred. 
5. It shall be the duty of the commanding general in charge of any 
lines requiring fortification, to acquaint himself with the resources of 
slave labor within his department, and to consider with care the manner 
in which he may obtain the control of whatever is necessary for the public 
service, by fair and equitable apportionment among the owners of such 
property. He will consult with the governor of the state and other state 
authorities as to the best mode of proceeding, so that his impressment 
may cause the least embarrassment to the industrial pursuits of the com- 
munity. 
6. Notices shall be given of the number and character of the slaves 2 
required, the time and place of their delivery, the time for which the ser- 
vice is required, and of the arrangements made for the subsistence, man- 
agement and custody of the slaves so required; and if the masters of 
slaves shall agree to furnish subsistence for their slaves and a suitable 
overseer or agent to superintend them, they shall have the privilege oi 
so doing. But such overseers shall be subject to the control of the officer 
in charge, and may be dismissed for any misconduct by him. 
7. The sum of twenty dollars per month for each slave delivered in 
pufsuance to requisition, and fifteen dollars per month for each slave held 
in consequence of failure of his master to obey requisition made as herein 
before provided, shall be paid by the Confederate States, and soldiers’ 
rations, medicines and medical attendance furnished; and the value of all 
such slaves as may die during their term of service or thereafter, from in- 
juries received or diseases contracted in such service, or may not be re- 
turned, shall be paid by the Confederate States. Such value shall be 
conclusively established by a formal appraisement by a board of experts 
mutually agreed upon at the time the slaves are received into the confe- 
derate service. Compensation shall also be made for all injuries to slaves 
arising from the act of the public enemy, or from any injury arising from 
a want of due diligence on the part of anthorities of the Confederate 
States. But the Confederate States will not be liable for any slave not 
returned by reason of fraud or collusion on the part of the owner or his 
agent, or the overseer selected by him to superintend them, nor if his 
death should be caused by the act of God, or by disease existing when 
the slave is received by confederate authorities. 
8. Subsistence and provisions furnished by the owner shall be com- 
muted for at the rates allowed soldiers in service. All slaves sent volun- 
tarily to the confederate authorities, and accepted by them, without other 
special contract, shall stand on the same footing as those delivered under 
requisition; and the owners of all slaves delivered or taken under requisi- 
tion sMll be entitled to regard the Confederate States as contracting with 
them to comply with the obligations and conditions herein expressed. 
9. In case there should be any disagreement on the subject of the value 
of any slave impressed, or in case the impressing officer shall not be 
satisfied of the accuracy of any valuation or valuations, the appraisement 
shall be referred to the appraisers appointed under the sth section of the 
act concerning impressments, according to the provisions of the act of 
congress approved 97th April 1863, and published in Orders, No 53, cur- 
rent series. 
order. 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General.