This Day in Georgia Civil War History
August 12, 1862
Permission Required to Board in Atlanta
In response to Braxton Bragg’s order of the previous day declaring martial law in Atlanta, Atlanta provost marshal G.W. Lee issued a special order prohibiting Atlanta hotels and boarding houses from lodging any person without a permit to be in Atlanta.
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.
