GENERAL ORDERS, 
No. 109. 
WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Adjutant General’s Office, 
Washington, August 16,1862. 
The following is an order of the President of the United States, 
dated July 22, 1862: 
First. Ordered, That military commanders within the States of 
Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, in an orderly manner, seize and 
use any property, real or personal, which may be necessary or con- 
venient for their several commands as supplies, or for other military 
purposes; and that while property may be destroyed for proper mili- 
tary objects, none shall be destroyed in wantonness or malice. 
Second, That military and naval commanders shall employ as labor- 
ers, within and from said States, so many persons of African descent 
as can be advantageously used for military and naval purposes, giving 
them reasonable wages for their labor. 
Third, That, as to both property and persons of African descent, 
accounts shall be kept sufficiently accurate and in detail to show 
quantities and amounts, and from whom both property and such per- 
sons shall have come, as a basis upon which compensation can be 
made in proper cases; and the several departments of this govern- 
ment shall attend to and perform their appropriate parts toward the 
execution of these orders. 
By order of the Secretary of War: 
E. D. TOWNSEND, 
Assistant Adjutant General.