of the Missouri, current series, having been duly mustered into service on the 28th day of March, 1865, is hereby ordered into active service from that date. By order of Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Fisk: W. T. CLARKE, First Lieutenant, Aide-de-Camp, and Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen. HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORTH MISSOURI, Hon. WILLIAM HERRON, Savannah, Mo.: DEAR SIR: I am in receipt of your valued favor of the 31st ultimo, and thank you for the information therein. You have discharged your duty fearlessly. I wish every civil and military officer would do the same thing. We should then have a better state of society. I am pained to have the least suspicion that Circuit Attorney Parker winked at the Saint Joe Military Prison attorney iniquity, and hope that investigation will show that he has had no complicity with the wrong prac ticed upon prisoners, or has endeavored in any way to shield any guilty attorney from the just blows of the offended law. I have always had a high opinion of Parker, and should regret the necessity of changing it. I assure you I shall not hesitate to go to the bottom of the iniquity, caring not those whose fingers are pinched in the operation. Saint Joseph has done well. I trust that every county in your district will thus lay hold of the horns of the altar of civil liberty, law, and order. I will act as your aide-de-camp, while I shall in no case relax my energies and preparations to properly meet and exterminate armed outlaws. I will in every proper instance stand second in command to the civil authorities. Lawlessness and a mobocratic spirit were born of the great barbarism-slavery. I trust the good name of loyalty and freedom will not be tarnished by contact with the relics of the abomination now dead, thank God. I have seen Governor Fletcher since my interview with you and gave him a history of the rise and fall of the Hill conspiracy to accumulate greenbacks. Your reappointment is beyond doubt. I shall be pleased to hear from you frequently. I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, CLINTON B. FISK, Brigadier-General. HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORTH MISSOURI, Maj. R. A. DE BOLT, District Provost-Marshal, Macon, Mo.: MAJOR: I have the honor to state that it has come to my knowledge that many persons have been arrested and imprisoned for a long time by some of your subordinates upon evidence insufficient to warrant the military authorities restraining citizens of their liberty. Great care should be exercised in the use of the arbitrary power confided to provost-marshals, and we cannot be too cautious in receiving as truth the statements of apparently good men who seek through the military power the punishment of neighbors for alleged offenses, old grudges, local animosities, and private griefs, to frequently seek adjustment through the military arm of power, much to the scandal and prejudice of honesty and loyalty. You will direct your assistant provost-marshal to henceforth, in each case of arrest and imprisonment, to immediately report to me at these headquarters in writing the evidence upon which such arrest has been made, and the names of parties who caused the arrest. Each prisoner will be instructed to make a full report in writing of his case, and the cause of his arrest as he understands it, and forward the same to these headquarters. • Very respectfully, your obedient servant, General C. B. FISK: CLINTON B. FISK, Brigadier-General. GLASGOW, April 3, 1865. I learn that Capt. Joseph Gooch, Lieutenant Bragg, Holtzclaw, Lindsley Peyton, Reuben Peyton, and Kit Peyton, all guerrillas from Howard County, are at or near Nebraska City. Gooch's wife went up a few days since. They have some stock at Prairie Home, near there. It is believed they are preparing to cross the plains. Brigadier-General FISK: A. F. DENNY, MEXICO, April 3, 1865. Lieutenant Lehman reports having killed a bushwhacker in Callaway, ten miles south of Bloomfield. The fellow's name was Scott. DAN. M. DRAPER, Lieutenant-Colonel. GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE NORTHWEST, The following-named officers constitute the staff of the major-general commanding. They will be obeyed and respected accordingly: Maj. T. J. Weed, additional aide-de-camp and chief of staff; Maj. T. I. McKenny, additional aide-de-camp, inspector-general, and chief of cavalry; Maj. C. S. Charlot, assistant adjutant-general; Maj. S. S. Curtis, Second Colorado Cavalry, aide-de-camp and judge-advocate; Capt. I. N. Mason, assistant quartermaster of volunteers, acting chief quartermaster; Maj. W. W. Burns, commissary of subsistence, chief commissary; Lieut. Col. Ebenezer Swift, surgeon, U. S. Army, medical director; Maj. R. H. Hunt, Fifteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, chief of ordnance and artillery; Capt. R. J. Hinton, Second Kansas Colored Volunteers, aide-de-camp; Lieut. S. P. Curtis, Sixteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, aide-de-camp. By command of Major-General Curtis: C. S. CHARLOT, Assistant Adjutant-General. SPECIAL ORDERS,} HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE NORTHWEST, I. Maj. T. I. McKenny, additional aide-de-camp, having reported is assigned to duty from the 23d of March ultimo. II. Maj. R. H. Hunt, Fifteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, having reported is assigned to duty from the 17th of March ultimo. By command of Major-General Curtis: C. S. CHARLOT, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE NORTHWEST, Brig. Gen. H. H. SIBLEY, Saint Paul, Minn.: GENERAL: I am in receipt of your favor of the 26th ultimo* containing a letter from Captain Howe, commanding at Fort Ripley, expressing apprehensions of hostilities on the part of the Chippewa Indians as soon as spring fairly opens. The cause of hostilities represented by Captain Howe is not, as your letter implies, attributable to rebels, but "dealers in substitutes;" and your immediate exertions must be manifested not only to prevent outrages such as the captain names, of running off "their young men in considerable numbers and much against their will," but also to show these Indians our resentment of such conduct. If possible, you will also ascertain where such young men may have been sent and the circumstances, so that they may be released if, as stated, they have been abducted and improperly made to enter our service. In the meantime it is proper to prepare for the threatened resentment, whatever may be the cause, and I have forwarded your communication to division headquarters, calling attention to the necessity of retaining or substituting the troops proposed to be withdrawn. I must also express my hope that State authorities will see to the organization and arming of the frontier militia, so as to secure convenient co-operation from that great national reserve if occasion seems to require assistance. I have the honor to be, general, your obedient servant, S. R. CURTIS, Major-General. THIBODEAUX, April 4, 1865. Colonel SAYLES, Napoleonville : General Cameron directs me to say that Whitaker's gang will probably come down on the west side of the Grand Bayou. It is reported that the detachment pursuing them from Donaldsonville has retaken a number of mules, and had a skirmish with them. B. B. CAMPBELL, Assistant Adjutant-General. THIBODEAUX, April 4, 1865. The general commanding directs me to say that Whitaker and fifty men with fifty stolen horses left McCall's plantation, three miles above Donaldsonville, this morning. They will probably attempt to retreat by Doctor Martin's or Doctor Ford's road to Bay Natchez. The general * See Part I, p. 1264. commanding directs that you send about fifty men under two good officers with instructions to proceed out Doctor Ford's road to the crossing of Grand Bayou, Bayon Corn, or Bayou Pierre Pass. At one of these places they will probably find a small squad of the Sixteenth Indiana Mounted Infantry, left in charge of a lot of their horses, while the main body of the detachment has gone forward dismounted. Your force will be instructed to approach this picket or squad very carefully to prevent a collision. Your force is for the purpose of re-enforcing this picket to prevent their capture, and to communicate if possible with the dismounted detachment, informing them of Whitaker's probable coming, and that he left his boats in Bayou Pierre Pass when he entered the district. These boats should be captured and removed to Bayou Boeuf or destroyed, the former being preferable. Whitaker, finding his retreat cut off, may hide in the Pierre Pass country. He should be hunted out if possible. Your detachment should take at least three days' rations. B. B. CAMPBELL, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI, Brigadier-General BUSSEY, Fort Smith: Is there any news of the enemy in your quarter! Keep me posted, please. G. M. DODGE, HDQRS. THIRD BRIG., THIRD DIV., SEVENTH ARMY CORPS, Fort Gibson, Cherokee Nation, April 4, 1865. Maj. Gen. J. J. REYNOLDS, Commanding Department of Arkansas, Little Rock, Ark.: SIR: I returned a few days ago. I employed all the spare force of my command putting in crops or assisting the refugees to put in crops. I shall do so for two or three weeks. There is great suffering among the refugees. I shall endeavor to have beef driven from the south for them. Sales of subsistence, under the division commander's orders, had been made to those actively engaged raising crops, but General Bussey directs me to stop it, or issue to but few parties. As the Government has been subsisting them, I had thought it well enough, until supplies could reach them by the river, for the Interior Department to let those who had money buy under the order at cost and carriage. I had designed issuing ten days' "refugee rations" to such as must have it, hoping that by that time supplies would reach here by river, and that it would enable them to put in crops. However, I countermanded the order on the instructions from Fort Smith. I wish that a supply of garden seeds and sweet and Irish potatoes, for seed, could be obtained and sent at once. If possible, I desire to see this community self-sustaining another year. I requested General Bussey to telegraph to you, requesting that supplies be sent by river for the refugees while the water was in stage. The Interior Department supplied them, but little has been brought down this winter. The small amount they have received has been hauled from Leavenworth at ruinous rates. This is a bad time to starve them, for I want to encourage them to work for the next few months. I advise you again of these facts and solicit such assistance as you may be able to render. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, WM. A. PHILLIPS, Colonel LEVERING, Assistant Adjutant-General: PINE BLUFF, ARK., April 4, 1865. Captain Norris, with seventy-four men of the Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry, has just returned from a four days' scout, going about fifty miles southeast. Reports having killed 1 lieutenant, and bringing in 10 prisoners, with no casualties on our side. Also brought in about 90 head of cattle. JAMES M. TRUE, HDQRS. THIRD SUB-DISTRICT OF SAINT Louis, Maj. H. HANNAHS, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General: Eleven bridges have been washed away; also several miles of the track above Pevely Station. It is estimated that it would take a month or six weeks yet to put the railroad in running order. Fifty wagons have gone to Sainte Genevieve for forage. If it can be furnished at that point to-morrow morning we can get along well. We have full forage to include the 6th; subsistence to include the 30th. I have connection with Cape Girardeau by telegraph. The troops in the Third Sub-District can be supplied with subsistence from here, as the road is in good condition to Mineral Point. Yesterday, 3 p. m., Hilderbrand, with fifty men appeared at Doe Run, about four miles south of Farmington, robbing teams, &c. I have 115 men after him, and have sent instructions to outposts to endeavor to head him off. I have just organized an expedition into the lower part of the district, which is delayed temporarily. When I start it, it can perform the double object of scout and carrying out your Special Orders, No. 71, of March 29. It is very currently reported here that Shelby is organizing a raid in this direction. The horses of his command are being shod for that purpose near Pocahontas, Ark. Do what you can to get forage to Sainte Genevieve for us tomorrow morning. D. J. HYNES, Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding. Colonel HYNES: PATTERSON, Mo., April 4, 1865—7.35 p.m. I have sent a force to Indian Ford. They will get there by 6 a. m. to-morrow. I will keep a good watch on all the roads that I think the guerrillas are likely to travel. I have no news concerning them. JAMES SMITH, Captain, Commanding Post. |