in operation
during the present year:--

HEAD-QUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, NEW ORLEANS, _February_ 3, 1864.

GENERAL ORDERS, NO. 23.

The following general regulations are published for the information
and government of all interested in the subject of compensated
plantation labor, public or private, during the present year, and in
continuation of the system established January 30, 1863:--

I. The enlistment of soldiers from plantations under cultivation in
this department having been suspended by order of the Government, will
not be resumed except upon direction of the same high authority.

II. The Provost-Marshal-General is instructed to provide for the
division of parishes into police and school districts, and to organize
from invalid soldiers a competent police for the preservation of
order.

III. Provision will be made for the establishment of a sufficient
number of schools, one at least for each of the police and school
districts, for the instruction of colored children under twelve years
of age, which, when established, will be placed under the direction of
the Superintendent of Public Education.

IV. Soldiers will not be allowed to visit plantations without the
written consent of the commanding officer of the regiment or post to
which they are attached, and never with arms, except when on duty,
accompanied by an officer.

V. Plantation hands will not be allowed to pass from one place to
another, except under such regulations as may be established by the
provost-marshal of the parish.

VI. Flogging and other cruel or unusual punishments are interdicted.

VII. Planters will be required, as early as practicable after the
publication of these regulations, to make a roll of persons employed
upon their estates, and to transmit the same to the provost marshal of
the parish. In the employment of hands, the unity of families will be
secured as far as possible.

VIII. All questions between the employer and the employed, until other
tribunals are established, will be decided by the provost-marshal of
the parish.

IX. Sick and disabled persons will be provided for upon the
plantations to which they belong, except such as may be received in
establishments provided for them by the Government, of which one will
be established at Algiers and one at Baton Rouge.

X. The unauthorized purchase of clothing, or other property, from
laborers, will be punished by fine and imprisonment. The sale of
whisky or ot