General Order No. 38

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Cincinnati, Ohio engraving.jpg
Engraving of a scene of Cincinnati, Ohio from the bank of the Ohio River, ca. 1860.

General Order No. 38 sought to eliminate open support for the Confederacy in the Department of Ohio during the American Civil War.


The Order stated:



Most Peace Democrats in Ohio objected to General Order No. 38. Clement Vallandigham, the best known Peace Democrat in the state, helped organize a rally for the Democratic Party at Mount Vernon, Ohio, on May 1, 1863. Peace Democrats Vallandigham, Samuel Cox, and George Pendleton all delivered speeches denouncing General Order No. 38. Vallandigham was so opposed to the order that he allegedly said that he "despised it, spit upon it, trampled it under his feet." He also supposedly encouraged his fellow Peace Democrats to openly resist Burnside. Vallandigham went on to chastise President Abraham Lincoln for not seeking a peaceable and immediate end to the Civil War and for allowing General Burnside to thwart citizen rights under a free government.


Burnside charged Vallandigham with the following crimes:




As a result of Leavitt's decision, authorities were required to send Vallandigham to federal prison. President Lincoln feared that Peace Democrats across the Union might rise up to prevent Vallandigham's detention. The president commuted Vallandigham's sentence to exile in the Confederacy. On May 25, Burnside sent Vallandigham into Confederate lines.

Some historians have viewed General Order No. 38 as Burnside's personal attack on Vallandigham. While Burnside clearly objected to his views, the general was not personally targeting Vallandigham. Numerous Ohioans, especially those with family members living in or economic ties to Confederate states, openly objected to the war. Other Union military commanders issued similar orders. Burnside attempted to restrain all Confederate sympathizers residing in the Department of Ohio with General Order 38.

Critics of General Order No.38 commonly argued that this and several other actions by the Union government violated Americans' civil liberties, including the writ of habeas corpus and freedom of speech. The Union's actions clearly restricted freedoms that most Americans held dear in the 1860s and many hold dear still today, yet Union officials sought to preserve the Union, even if that meant a temporary suspension of these fundamental rights.

See Also


  1. "Burnside, Ambrose Everett (1824 - 1881)." Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Http://
  4. Marvel, William. Burnside. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1991. 