Atlanta Provost Marshal Special Order

of August 12, 1862

Martial law having been declared over Atlanta and its environs, I do hereby publish the following special order for the information of hotel and boarding house keepers:

Special Order. No hotel or boarding-house keeper or citizen within the limits of this city or its environs, will be permitted to receive any traveler or visitor until the visitor or traveler shall produce a permit, which permit shall immediately be delivered by the hotel or boarding-house keeper or citizen to the provost marshal. The traveler or visitor shall thereupon call upon the provost marshal and have the permit vised by him or a new permit granted to remain in or leave the city; and no hotel or boarding-house keeper or citizen shall permit any traveler or visitor to take away any package without having a permit vised by the provost marshal, or his permit to leave the city. Each hotel or boarding-house keeper or citizen receiving travelers or visitors shall report daily at 8 A.M, the names of such travelers or visitors received by them, or the permit before named to the provost marshal.

G.W. Lee

Commanding Post and Provost Marshal

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1954), p. 527.

(c) Carl Vinson Institute of Government, The University of Georgia

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