manding general of this department to say that you did very wrong in permitting these officers to pass your lines under the authority of such a paper. Any person hereafter attempting to pass with such a document will be immediately arrested and the case reported to these headquarters for instructions. J. C. KELTON, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI, Capt. J. C. KELTON, Cairo, November 26, 1861. Asst. Adjt. Gen., Dept. of the Missouri, Saint Louis, Mo. SIR: One more of the Camp Jackson exchanged prisoners has arrived here this evening on his way South. I have determined to retain him and all others arriving in small squads until the whole of them are here and discharge them together. I respectfully submit this plan for the approval of the general commanding the department. Respectfully, your obedient servant, U. S. GRANT, Brigadier-General, Commanding. OFFICE OF PROVOST-MARSHAL, Saint Louis, Mo., November 26, 1861. Capt. WILLIAM MCMICHAEL, Assistant Adjutant-General. SIR: I beg leave respectfully to call the attention of the commanding general to the following facts: Several of the prisoners taken at Camp Jackson near this city May 10, 1861, and who have been recently exchanged but who were within the lines of the Confederate Army at the time the exchange was made have returned to this city nominally for the purpose of receiving in person the certificate of exchange, but really I have reason to believe to arrange private business and convey information and assistance to the enemy. Two persons both of whom have been in the Confederate Army were arrested in this city before their certificates of exchange were delivered. I have information that several more are coming. I have been applied to for the release of those under arrest, but have refused upon the ground that those who were at the time of the exchange already within the lines of the Confederate Army had no right whatever to come to this city. Their presence is not necessary to complete the exchange, and the certificates which are merely the evidence of the exchange can be forwarded by the commissioners who represent the Confederate Army in the negotiations. As it may be some days or weeks before this matter is finally disposed of I would respectfully ask of the commanding general an instruction upon this point. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEO. E. LEIGHTON, Provost-Marshal. HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI, Capt. J. C. KELTON, Asst. Adjt. Gen., Dept. of the Missouri, Saint Louis, Mo. SIR: Yours of the 26th instant in relation to Captain George's return to Saint Louis is received. Captain George was arrested by the picket to whom he presented himself and as a prisoner was brought before me. Being a commissioned officer I confined him during his few hours' stay here to the hotel on his own word not to leave it and sent him a prisoner to report to the general commanding the department for his decision. Although the terms of the exchange of prisoners entered into between Generals Frémont and Price would authorize the passage of Camp Jackson prisoners to the army to which they might belong I did not interpret it as authority for them to return from the South to visit their friends and then pass our lines again. The matter was simply referred to the general commanding the department and the prisoner, a commissioned officer, sent to Saint Louis on his parole. Lieutenant Guibor whose name appears on the pass with Captain George did not accompany him. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, U. S. GRANT, Brigadier-General, Commanding. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI, Brig. Gen. U. S. GRANT, Cairo, Ill.: In answer to your communication of November 26 announcing that you are retaining the Camp Jackson prisoners who arrive in small numbers so that they may be sent to the enemy in large bodies the commanding general directs me to say that he approves of your action in this matter. WM. McMICHAEL, Assistant Adjutant-General. SAINT LOUIS, November 30, 1861. Brig. Gen. SAMUEL R. CURTIS, Saint Louis, Mo. GENERAL: With a view to the settlement of the question which I submitted to you as a precedent for the future by the major-general commanding the Western Department I respectfully ask that transportation from Saint Louis to Sedalia and beyond the Federal lines may be furnished to the prisoners of war who were taken at Camp Jackson May 10, 1861, and who have recently been released from parole. The number will be sixty including General D. M. Frost and staff, and by railroad will require one passenger-car and one baggage-car. They will be ready to leave on to-morrow morning. Respectfully, your obedient servant, HENRY W. WILLIAMS. (In behalf of Camp Jackson prisoners.) HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI, Major-General POLK, Commanding, Columbus, Ky. GENERAL: Mr. H. B. Belt, of Saint Louis, is here with the releases for Camp Jackson prisoners at Columbus which I promised you should be procured and forwarded. The department commander at Saint Louis does not construe the agreement between Generals Frémont and Price as making provision for the transportation and delivery of "side-arms and equipments of officers and personal property of privates" to paroled prisoners who had previously gone beyond our lines and into the enemy's service, and therefore will permit nothing to be sent except the releases. I send Captain Hillyer, my aide-de-camp, accompanied by Mr. Belt under a flag of truce to deliver to you the releases. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Ú. S. GRANT, Brigadier-General, U. S. Army, By W. S. HILLYER, Aide-de-Camp. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI, A. GLASSCOCK. SIR: In answer to your communication of December 10* MajorGeneral Halleck directs me to say that should you attempt to return to the rebel army without being duly exchanged and having a pass to that effect you will if captured be shot for violating your parole of honor. Brigadier-General Curtis, U. S. Army (headquarters Saint Louis), has charge of the exchange of prisoners taken at Camp Jackson but no arrangement has yet been made for a general exchange. WILLIAM MCMICHAEL, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI, Capt. J. C. KELTON, Saint Louis, Mo.: On the strength of a telegraphic dispatch received from Saint Louis that the prisoners arriving here yesterday were impostors I have ordered them back to Saint Louis. Eight of these prisoners did not claim to have been taken at Camp Jackson and had with them regular certificates of exchange. As I am anxious to make as few shipments of these men as possible and as there was nothing in my telegraphic instructions to prevent it I returned these also. * * * *Not found. U. S. GRANT, SAINT LOUIS, Mo., December 19, 1861. Brig. Gen. U. S. GRANT, Cairo, Ill.: By what authority did you send back exchanged prisoners? They are not under assumed names. All were identified here before exchange. H. W. HALLECK, Major-General. SAINT LOUIS, December 19, 1861. Brig. Gen. U. S. GRANT, Cairo, Ill.: No such man as W. H. Buel, colonel, known at these headquarters. It is most extraordinary that you should have obeyed a telegram sent by an unknown person and not even purporting to have been given by authority. The prisoners will be immediately returned to Cairo. H. W. HALLECK, Major-General. HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI, Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK, U. S. Army, Cairo, December 20, 1861. Commanding Department of the Missouri, Saint Louis, Mo. GENERAL: Your second dispatch saying "It is most extraordinary that you should have obeyed a telegram sent by an unknown person and not even purporting to have been given by authority" is received. In justice to myself I must reply to this telegram. In the first place I never thought of doubting the authority of a telegram received from Saint Louis, supposing that in military matters the telegraph was under such surveillance that no military order could be passed over the wires that was not by authority; second, the signature to the telegram was made with so many flourishes that I could not make it out at all and to send a copy to your headquarters was obliged to send to the office here for a duplicate; third, before this telegram was received Captain Livingston who came in charge of these prisoners reported to me that several who were to come had proven to be impostors and that he had reason to believe that two of those still with him were under assumed names; fourth, directions sufficient to detain prisoners (Camp Jackson exchanged prisoners) might come from the provost-marshal's office, from General Curtis or from headquarters, and I do not know the employés of the former nor the staff of the latter. The fact is I never dreamed of so serious a telegraphic hoax emanating through a large and responsible office like that in Saint Louis. Inclosed I send you copy of the dispatch received. I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, General GRANT: U. S. GRANT, Brigadier-General, Commanding. [Inclosure.] SAINT LOUIS, December 15, 1861. The D. G. Taylor left here at 1 p. m. to-day. Stop her and send back all the Camp Jackson men. They all have assumed names. W. H. BUEL, Colonel. Brig. Gen. U. S. GRANT, Cairo, Ill.: SAINT LOUIS, December 20, 1861. The person who sent the telegram about the prisoners has been discovered and placed in confinement. He has no authority whatever. You will hereafter be more careful about obeying telegrams from private persons countermanding orders from these headquarters. H. W. HALLECK, Major-General. HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI, General L. POLK: I send you under flag of truce some seventeen of the Camp Jackson prisoners who are released under the Frémont-Price agreement. These prisoners were brought here on Tuesday last, and would have been immediately forwarded to Columbus but that a dispatch was sent to me purporting to be official stating that they were impostors and were not the men they assumed to be. In consequence of this dispatch I arrested the parties here and put them at labor for a few hours and then sent them back to Saint Louis. It turned out, however, that the dispatch was a wicked hoax perpetrated by an individual in Saint Louis who has been arrested and will be properly punished. No one regrets the occurrence more than I do. Colonel Webster has charge of the expedi tion and will receive any communication you may desire to send me. U. S. GRANT, Brigadier-General, Commanding. Col. J. C. KELTON, SAINT LOUIS, March 14, 1862. Asst. Adjt. Gen., Hdqrs. Dept. of the Missouri, Saint Louis, Mo. COLONEL: I have the honor of submitting my report concerning the exchanges of Camp Jackson and Lexington prisoners. Said exchanges were made in pursuance of an agreement between Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont, commanding the U. S. forces in this department, and General Sterling Price, commanding the rebel forces (styled Missouri State Guard), made on the 26th day of October, 1861. Said agreement ⚫authorized and ordered the exchange of certain officers and privates therein named and other privates to the number of 530, captured by the U. S. forces under command of General N. Lyon at Camp Jackson, Mo., May 10, 1861, for certain officers and privates therein named and other privates to the number of 530, captured by the rebel force (denominated Missouri State Guard) under the command of General Sterling Price at Lexington, Mo., September 20, 1861. On the part of the rebels were named as commissioners to effect said exchange Col. S. B. Churchill, Col. D. H. Armstrong, Col. J. R. Barrett, Maj. H. W. Williams and D. R. Barclay, esq., all residents of Saint Louis, appointed by General Sterling Price. On the part of the United States General S. R. Curtis, commandant of this military district, appointed Col. John A. Gurley, commissioner. Colonel Gurley being compelled to repair to Washington to take his seat in Congress Gen |