Major General William T. Sherman, commanding the compulsory Union Military Division of the Mississippi, Special issues Field Order Number 15, setting aside abandoned plantations in the coastal areas of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina and divided into ten-thousand 40 acre plots.  The plots will be given to self-emancipated slaves (freedmen) for subsistence farming, who may claim “possessory (sic) title” (squatter’s rights) with the option to purchase the land.

       [restored 4/16/2022]