War Department,
Adjutant-General's Office,
Washington, July 13, 1866.
Ordered, That all persons who are undergoing sentence by military courts and have been imprisoned six months, except those who are under sentence for the crimes of murder, arson, or rape, and excepting those who are under sentence at the Tortugas, be discharged from imprisonment and the residue of their sentence remitted. Those who belong to the military service and their term unexpired will be returned to their command if it is still in service, and their release is conditional upon their serving their full term and being of good behavior.
By order of the President of the United States:
E. D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant-General.
Source: Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897, Volume X, James D. Richardson, ed., p 114.
[From McPherson's History of Reconstruction, p. 19S.]
Andrew Johnson, General Orders No. 46 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/379168