889. Although the necessities of the service may require soldiers to be ordered on working parties as a duty, commanding officers are to bear in mind that fitness for military service by instruction and discipline is the object for which the army is kept on foot, and that they are not to employ the troops when not in the field, and especially the mounted troops, in labors that interfer with their military duties and exercises, except of immediate necessity, which shall be forthwith reported for the orders of the War Department.
Regulations for the Army of the Confederate States, 1863