It is represented that Doctor Robinson has never taken up arms against or given aid and comfort to the enemies of the Government but that he is simply a sympathizer with the Southern element; that he has prevented, however, his son from joining the rebel army and that he has at various times turned his house into a temporary hospital for the benefit of Union soldiers, and in one instance one of these dying under his roof he had him decently buried at his own expense.

If these representations be correct as above set forth Lieutenant Walldorf and his party deserve the severest punishment for their outrageous disregard of law, order and discipline. Lieutenant Walldorf has violated the orders of General Halleck published at various times for the regulation of arrests and he must answer for his disregard of these orders. You will therefore call upon the said officer for an explicit statement and full report in the cases above cited; you will also investigate the matter yourself with all the scrutiny essential to such an important case, and if you find Lieutenant Walldorf and the members of his party have been guilty of the conduct set forth against them and have acted unauthorizedly without orders from yourself you will arrest and prefer charges against all concerned in the affair and transmit a full report of the matter in this case along with said charges to these headquarters.

If there are no charges which can be substantiated against Doctor Robinson of his having openly taken up arms against the Government of the United States or of his having aided and abetted treason you will require him to take the oath of allegiance to the United States and give bonds for his future loyal good conduct to the amount of $1,000, after which you will release him and allow him to return to his home without any further molestation.

You are requested to make a report immediately upon this affair. I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant, LUCIEN J. BARNES,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS,

Tipton, Mo., April 10, 1862.

Capt. LUCIEN J. BARNES, Assistant Adjutant-General :

F. A. Walldorf, acting lieutenant, has submitted to me a statement of which the following is a copy:

Yours was duly received, and in regard to the hanging match I have to say that it was done at Captain Rice's suggestion and approval and that the statements of my guides led me to conclude that Mr. Sidney Robinson was actually connected with a gang of jayhawkers who were traced from his house. Further I would remark that when I said he should not be hanged if he could find one man to speak in his favor as a just, honest, good Union man all (with one exception, one who was arrested by Captain Rice as a spy) testified that they knew no good of him. The second person (a boy) did acknowledge being connected with said jayhawkers and described the horses. Mrs. Crook I am informed had been harboring a secesh recruiting officer and recruits and the appearance of the house led me to think it was so. No white person was about the house and the negroes said they left when the troops came in town. Upstairs all the carpets seemed to be brought up and used as beds with blankets, quilts, &c., and on the lower floors no carpets were used. Mike Chism was said to have boarded a part of the men and he was a near neighbor. Also the house contained ten or twelve empty canisters of the kind known as powder canisters.

Yours, very respectfully,

F. A. WALLDORF,

[Acting] Lieutenant, Sixth Missouri Infantry.

J. H. BLOOD,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding Post.

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HEADQUARTERS MISSOURI STATE MILITIA,
Saint Louis, Mo., April 12, 1862.

Col. ARNOLD KREKEL, Saint Charles, Mo.:

I am directed by the commanding general to instruct you to forward under guard to this city the prisoners sentenced by the military commission which convened at Danville and ordered by Major-General Halleck in General Orders, No. 15, dated headquarters Department of the Mississippi, Saint Louis, April 3, 1862, to be confined in the military prison at Alton. The officer in command of the guard will report to these headquarters for further orders. Send them by the morning train. Inclosed find official copy of General Orders, No. 15.

Respectfully,

|C. W. MARSH,] Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS, Tipton, Mo., April 12, 1862.

Capt. LUCIEN J. BARNES, Assistant Adjutant-General:
For some time previous to the 20th of March daily complaints came
to headquarters of outrages committed upon Union citizens living in
and around Versailles most of which could be traced to a band of some
fifteen or twenty jayhawkers. These were all perpetrated during the
night time. Those taking the most active part in these matters were
disguised in some manner, as with false whiskers, slouched hats, army
overcoats, &c., which led to the conclusion that they were citizens of
that part of the country. On the evening of March 22 they fell upon
two Federal soldiers and stripped them completely of all their clothes.

Becoming so bold I determined to find them out and bring them to justice. With this intention I secretly fitted out an expedition to start from here late in the day in wagons and arrive late in the evening at an appointed place in the infested neighborhood. I had selected good men for the purpose and had prepared full instructions. The evening of the 24th of March was the one selected for putting in execution the plan. The orders for the Moniteau County expedition and the substitution of Company D for Company H at this post entirely disarranged the arrangement. The result was Acting Lieutenant Walldorf and men of Company D were sent by Captain Van Deusen instead of those I had selected.

I deem this preliminary statement necessary, first, to show the necessity of the expedition; second, to show how it was that Walldorf came to go in command. From all the evidence I can obtain relating to the trip I submit the following summary-leaving you to decide upon the merits whether those concerned shall be held to answer in the manner referred to by you in your note ordering an investigation: I have examined numerous persons in regard to the affairs in question and their testimony is all to the same effect in regard to the hanging. Acting Lieutenant Walldorf requested three of the State militia, two citi zens, and Edward Tigh, of Company I, Sixth Missouri Volunteers, to act as jury upon the case, believing as they did that he (Robinson) was connected with the band of jayhawkers whom they supposed they had traced from his house by numerous horse tracks leading therefrom. Mr. William V. Parks, a man well known as a reliable person (one of the citizens), acted as foreman. The decision of this jury was that

although justice required immediate hanging mercy should hold him for a less prompt retribution. 'Tis true a rope was adjusted around his neck but he was not harmed at all.

Up to this point after his arrest he had been very abusive, using expressions like the following: "All your devilish artillery can't make me take an oath to support such a Constitution as you are fighting for," and "all the devils in hell combined with all the military power of the United States could never make a Union man of me." There were some fifteen citizens gathered and none of them would say a word in his behalf when called upon to do so and all the testimony of his neighbors and the Union men of Morgan County goes to show that they believe him deserving of the most extreme penalty of the law, and I may add the women got up a petition praying that he be kept during the war at least. All these circumstances combined with his statement to Mr. Parks that he would arm his negroes and had bought revolvers for every member of his family justly led Walldorf to believe him capable of being a leader in this system of jayhawking.

All the Union citizens I have seen uphold him (Walldorf) in his course and say, "He is just the one for their country." The representations made to you are if I am any judge in the matter widely apart from the facts. He has often been seen "packing arms." He has by his own confession given comfort to enemies of the Government. He not only did not prevent his son joining the rebel army but furnished him a horse to go with and if Union soldiers have occupied his house as a hospital nobody I can find knows of it.

Regarding his giving up the house of Mrs. Crook to plunder I have collected the following facts: He was directed there by some citizen with the idea that a recruiting officer stopped there; arriving none but negroes could be found who on being questioned separately said that they had gone when the soldiers first came into the neighborhood and that there were sixteen of them. Other testimony goes to show that a large squad were there the day before. These circumstances and the appearance of the house inside were conclusive evidence that Mrs. Crook had been harboring the enemy to an alarming extent and decided Walldorf to give the house up for pillage. A son of Mrs. Crook lately from Price's army was also known to have been there. (Mrs. Crook has recovered many of her things.)

The above statement contains the facts I have been able to collect regarding the questionable conduct of Acting Lieutenant Walldorf. The discrepancies between the information furnished you and the facts as they exist have decided me to forward this statement and await your further orders before preferring the charges called for by yours of the 10th instant.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. H. BLOOD, Lieutenant-Colonel Sixth Missouri Volunteers, Comdg. Post.

P. S.-I omitted to state that the other person who was hung most (a person by the name of Chittenden) confessed his complicity with the gang, told five names connected with it and said there were ten or twelve others; also described some of the horses they had stolen and said the gang left that morning and would camp that night on Buffalo Creek twenty miles distant. News has just come of the apprehension of some of the gang at Warsaw, one John McCloud riding a horse stolen from the Mr. Parks referred to above among them. J. H. B

GENERAL ORDERS,
No. 17.

HDQRS. DIST. OF CENTRAL MISSOURI,
Jefferson City, Mo., April 22, 1862.

I. It is with feelings of unfeigned horror at the hellish crimes perpetrated and a profound loathing, abhorrence and disgust for the fiendish outlaws who committed them that the brigadier-general commanding the District of Central Missouri once more calls the attention of the U. S. troops both volunteer and Missouri State Militia under his command to the necessity of increased and constant vigilance tempered with caution and prudence as well as justice and protection toward the innocent, in order that these great, growing and terrible outrages of every sort may be put an end to and the outlaws infesting the district exterminated.

Reports of murders, robberies and indeed of every crime known as felony and less criminal offenses reach these headquarters from every part of the district so that it has become dangerous for peaceful, law-abiding citizens and especially good Union citizens to pursue their legitimate vocation without molestation and imminent danger. The country is infested with bands of murderers, robbers and other outlaws of every shade of turpitude known to the criminal calendar, and in some instances (as recent evidence too plainly proves) these wretches are disguised under the uniform of our patriotic army and are pretending to act under and by authority of the United States. These base aud bloodthirsty beasts in human form have by their deeds, their boasts and their threats placed themselves beyond the pale of law and must be dealt with accordingly. As the innocent victims of these miscreants are made to suffer without cause and without trial or hearing of any sort (save their cries for mercy uttered in the agonies of terror and death which pass unheeded) so must their brutal, lawless and vandal tormentors be dealt with and no mercy shown them. Reasoning with outlaws is of no avail. The law and its faithful officers are set at defiance by these armed and ruthless agents of anarchy and hence they must be subjected to their own code and punished without mercy upon the spot when found enacting or banded together for the enactment of their foul deeds. It is therefore ordered for the observance of all concerned:

II. That hereafter whenever and wherever bands of guerrillas, jayhawkers, marauders, murderers, &c., are found in arms in open opposition to the laws and legitimate authorities of the United States and the State of Missouri the miscreants of which they are composed are to be shot down by the military authorities when commanded by commissioned officers upon the spot where caught perpetrating their foul acts. And at all times and in all places when our troops no matter by whom commanded are forcibly opposed by outlaws these latter are to be exterminated at all hazards.

III. That all persons who have or shall in future knowingly harbor or in any manner encourage guerrillas, jayhawkers, robbers, murderers or other outlaws in their nefarious deeds will be arrested and kept in close confinement until tried by a military commission or other court as may be deemed expedient at the time.

IV. That where evidence cannot be produced to establish the guilt of parties accused of harboring and encouraging the lawless marauders, &c., above named but against whom there is strong circumstantial evidence and suspicion they are to be placed under heavy bonds with good and reliable security to keep the peace and for their future good

conduct and also required to take the oath of allegiance; and when they refuse or neglect to do this they are to be confined and so held until released by proper authority.

By order of Brig. Gen. James Totten, commanding district: LUCIEN J. BARNES, Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

Trial by Military Commission of Bridge-Burners, Marauders, Etc.

GENERAL ORDERS,

No. 10.

HDQRS. WESTERN DEPARTMENT,
Saint Louis, Mo., September 12, 1861.

I. Before the military commission which convened at the Saint Louis Arsenal on the 5th instant, pursuant to Special Orders, No. 118, current series, from these headquarters, the following prisoners were arraigned, viz:

Phinneas P. Johnson, William Shiftell, Jerome Nall, John Williams, James R. Arnold, Charles Lewis, John Deane, Doctor Steinhoner, W. W. Lynch, T. J. Sappington, James Thompson, Thomas Grigsby, John Crow, David E. Perryman, John W. Graves, Alfred Jones, William Durnham, C. H. Hodges, James Marr, G. S. Yertes.

Many of the prisoners above named were found without any charge whatever lodged against them; others had but trivial charges, and being unable to procure witnesses in their respective cases the commission deemed it expedient to have the same released which was carried into effect after a rigid cross-examination and having the oath of allegiance duly administered in each individual case.

The commission would respectfully report to the commanding major-general that they have found imprisoned in the arsenal a great many persons charged with being spies and traitors. These charges were not sustained by any evidence whatever. The persons taking them prisoners did in most cases send no names of witnesses along. In others the names of witnesses were sent without their address and residences. Some were sent here prisoners because one Union man considered them dangerous.

The commission has felt itself obliged to release most of these prisoners. Some suspicious looking were retained on no further evidence than their own confession and suspicious appearance and behavior.

The commission would respectfully suggest that orders be issued preventing persons from being arrested unless there is some strong circumstantial proof of facts of which your commission can avail itself. It seemed to your commission, even, and it is with deep regret that they are compelled to report such things to you, that in few cases men were arrested as spies and traitors and sent here because they raised objections when their property was taken away. In other cases their property was taken while they were absent in prison without any cause whatever.

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The reflections contained in the report of the proceedings have occurred to the commanding general. He is surprised to find that in many of the cases no evidence whatever has been presented to the commission. He concurs in the opinion expressed relative to groundless charges against citizens, unwarrantable seizures of their persons and unjust depredations upon their property.

The attention of commanders is again called to the full observance of the orders that have been issued from these headquarters concerning arrests.

By order of Major-General Frémont:

J. C. KELTON, Assistant Adjutant-General.