General Order # 11

[Spinster]

No, not the Missouri General Order 11, though that's another one that put women and children and old men of all social classes on a long road during the wrong time of year, with no preparation........

Instead, General Order #11 issued by Major General U. S. Grant on December 17, 1862, and applying to Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee



The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled from the department within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order.

Post commanders will see to it that all of this class of people be furnished passes and required to leave, and any one returning after such notification will be arrested and held in confinement until an opportunity occurs of sending them out as prisoners, unless furnished with permit from headquarters. No passes will be given these people to visit headquarters for the purpose of making personal application of trade permits.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/grant.html



Grant's order only remained in effect for a few weeks before a delegation to Washington placed the problem before President Lincoln. By early January, the order was rescinded.

[hanktrent]

The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled from the department within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order.

Post commanders will see to it that all of this class of people be furnished passes and required to leave, and any one returning after such notification will be arrested and held in confinement until an opportunity occurs of sending them out as prisoners, unless furnished with permit from headquarters. No passes will be given these people to visit headquarters for the purpose of making personal application of trade permits.

Interesting insight on period mindset.

Before clicking on the link, which expands on the order in a similar direction, it occurred to me that the order sounds like an imprecise way of saying, "you know, those people who always bend the rules and overcharge when they sell stuff, we need to get rid of them," which in the shorthand of the day would just be "Jews."

I don't mean generically in the sense that even a gentile can "jew somebody down." I do mean that he actually thought it was only the Jewish people causing the problem, but it didn't occur to him that the order, taken literally, would allow a Christian swindler to sell overpriced cheap watches to the soldiers while kicking out a little old Jewish lady who'd only come to visit her son. He just meant, you know, those people who always swindle people when they sell stuff, you know, the Jews.

It's a lesson in how deep prejudices can run, until one doesn't even realize how illogical they are when cast into legal language where precision is important. Or maybe just an early example of profiling.

The fall-out, as described on the website, was surprisingly modern: a delegation of outraged Jewish representatives followed by some quick spin doctoring to distance the government from the order and claim no prejudice.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[sbl]

This on-line book might be of interest.....

http://books.google.com/books?id=-OxMjGRkFXwC&printsec=titlepage

COPYRIGHT, 1909
BY ISAAC MARKENS

[Spinster]

Thank you Scott---both for that and responding to my request of yesterday (I followed your linkage and the material is on its way).

I was hoping for accounts holding more period material as I posted this. My source on this order was a marvelous children's book of recent publication.

[sbl]

I hope she will use the "stages of dress" folder. The "models" handled the drawers over the chemise layering by standing sideways, careful draping and tucking around the openings, or with their backs to the wall. I have dozens of images that use the tail of the chemise showing out the back of open drawers for humor.

Back to the subject. I have dated a number of ladies of the Hebrew Persuasion and they put on clothing just like "us." ;) ('WINK")

[sbl]

Reminiscences of the
Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment
By CAPT. JOHN G. B. ADAMS.

http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/Mass19.html

CHAPTER XVII.
THE EXCHANGE AND RETURN NORTH.


"We arrived at Annapolis and quartered in the several hotels. The following day we received two months' pay. I bought a good uniform of a Jew for seventy-five dollars, it was a nice blue when I first put it on, but before I arrived home it was as brown as a butternut...."