WAT: DEPARTMENT,
                                Adjutant General's Office,
                                     Washington, Ftbruary 28, 1863.

   l..The following rules in regard to paroles, established by the com-
 mon law and usages  of  war, are published for  the information of all
1 concerned:
   I. Paroling must always take place by the exchange of signed du-
 plicates of  a written document, in which  the name  and rank of the
 parties paroled are correctly stated.  Any one who intentionally mis-
 states his rank, forfeits  the benefit of his  parole,  and is liable to
 punishment.
   2. None but commissioned officers can give the parole for themselves
 or their commands, and  no inferior officer can give a parole without
 the authonty of his superior, if within reach.
   3. No paroling on the battle-field;  no paroling  of entire bodies o
 troops after a battle; and no dismissal  of large numbers of prisoners,
 with a general declaration that they are paroled,  is permitted, or of any
 value.
   4. An officer who gives a parole for himself or his  command on the
 battle-field, is deemed a deserter, and will be punished accordingly.
   •r>. For the officer, the pledging of his parole is  an individual act,  and
 no wholesale paroling by an officer, for a number of inferiors in rank,
 is permitted or valid.
   6. No non-commissioned officer or private can give  his parole except
 through an  officer.  Individual paroles  not  given through  an officer
 are not only void, but subject the individual giving them to the  pun-
 ishment of  death  as deserters.  The  only admissible exception is
 where individuals,  properly separated from their commands, have  suf-
 fered long confinement without the possibility of being paroled through
 an officer.
   7. No prisoners of  war can be forced by the hostile government to
 pledge his parole, and any threat or ill-treatment to force the giving of
 the parole, is contrary to  the law of war.
   8. No prisoner of war can enter into engagements inconsistent with
 his character and duties  as a citizen and a subject of his State.  He
 can only bind himself not to bear arms against his captor for a limited
 period, or until  he  is exchanged, and  this only with the stipulated or
GENERAL ORDERS,

      No. 49. 
9
implied consent of his own government.  If the engagement which he
makes is not  approved  by his  government, he is bound to return and
surrender himself as a prisoner of war.  His own government cannot
at the'same time  disown his engagement  and  refuse  his return as a
prisoner.
  9.  No one can pledge his parole that he will never bear arms against
the government of his captors, nor that he  will not bear arms against
any other enemy  of his government, not at the time the ally of his
captors.  Such agreements have  reference  only to the existing enemy
and  his  existing  allies, and to the existing war, and  not  to  future
belligerents.
  10. While the pledging of the military parole is  a voluntary act of
the individual, the capturing power is not  obliged to  grant it, nor is
the government of the individual paroled bound to approve or ratify it,
  11. Paroles not  authorized by the common law of war, are not valid
till approved  by  the government of the individual so pledging his
parole.
  12. The pledging of any unauthorized military parole is  a military
offence, punishable under the common  law of war.

  I [..This order will be published at  the  head  of  every regiment in
the service of the  United States,  and will be officially  communicated
by every General  commanding an army in the field to  the Command-
ing General of  the opposing forces, and will be hereafter strictly ob-
served and enforced in the armies ofthe United States.

  By order  of Major General H. W. Halleck :

                                         L.  THOMAS,
                                              Adjutant  General.
  Official:
Assistant Adjutant General.