General Banks' treatment of the negroes was so very different from that
which they had received from Gen. Butler,--displacing the negro officers
of the first three regiments organized,--that it rather checkmated
recruiting, so much so that he found it necessary to resort to the
provost guard to fill up regiments, as the following order indicates:

[Illustration: PROVOST GUARD SECURING CONSCRIPTS. Compelling all
able-bodied men to join the army.]

Commission of Enrollment.
GENERAL ORDERS HEADQUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
No. 64. _New Orleans_, August 29, 1863.

I. Colonel JOHN S. CLARK, Major B. RUSH PLUMLY and Colonel
GEORGE H. HANKS, are hereby appointed a Commission to
regulate the Enrollment, Recruiting and Employment and
Education of persons of color. All questions concerning the
enlistment of troops for the Corps d'Afrique, the regulation
of labor, or the government and education of negroes, will
be referred to the decision of this commission, subject to
the approval of the Commanding General of the Department.

II. No enlistments for the Corps d'Afrique will be
authorized or permitted, except under regulations approved
by this Commission.

III. _The Provost Marshal General will cause to be enrolled
all able-bodied men of color in accordance with the Law of
Conscription, and such number as may be required for the
military defence of the Department, equally apportioned to
the different parishes, will be enlisted for the military
service under such regulations as the Commission may adopt.
Certificates of exemption will be furnished to those not
enlisted, protecting them from arrest or other interference,
except for crime._

IV. Soldiers of the Corps d'Afrique will not be allowed to
leave their camps, or to wander through the parishes, except
upon written permission, or in the company of their
officers.

V. Unemployed persons of color, vagrants and camp loafers,
will be arrested and employed upon the public works, by the
Provost Marshal's Department, without other pay than their
rations and clothing.

VI. Arrests of persons, and seizures of property, will not
be made by colored soldiers, nor will they be charged with
the custody of persons or property, except when under the
command, and accompanied b