and property. He directs me to say in reply that the property will of course be confiscated and that the men will be kept in custody. Before many days some place will be designated where prisoners of this description can be sent for safe-keeping until everything is settled. When there is good reason to suppose that persons are giving aid and comfort to the enemy they should be arrested even when there is want of positive proof of their guilt. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, A. V. COLBURN, Assistant Adjutant-General. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, August 23, 1861. OPERATOR NATIONAL OFFICE: Do not send any messages relative to the arrest of any person or persons in this District at any time during the day. The order is imperative. THOMAS A. SCOTT. No. 136 DUANE STREET, NEW YORK, August 23, 1861. SIMEON DRAPER, Esq. DEAR SIR: When in England a few weeks since two merchants from Charleston, S. C., both Northern men, and one of them a most violent secessionist, told me that the British consul in Charleston would sometimes allow letters to be dropped into his bag for England for them. The names of these two rebel gentlemen can be had by application to me from the proper quarter. Yours, truly, [Indorsement.] N. A. GARRETT. This gentleman has been known to me for twenty years, and is reliable. S. DRAPER. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 24,1861. Hon. WILLIAM P. FESSENDEN, Portland, Me. SIR: As it is important and desirable that agents of the insurgents who may land at or proceed from Portland should be arrested I will thank you to inform me of a suitable person to employ to be on the lookout for such parties. The compensation will be at the rate of $50 a month. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 24, 1861. Hon. ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, Detroit, Mich. SIR: I will thank you to recommend to me a person to be employed in your city at a compensation of $50 a month to detect and arrest persons in the employ of the insurgents. I am, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 24, 1861. THURLOW WEED, Esq., Albany, N. Y. SIR: As it is desirable and important that agents of the insurgents who may have been abroad should be arrested when on the way to the disaffected region I will thank you to inform me of a suitable person at Rouse's Point to employ there for that purpose. The compensation would be at the rate of $50 per month. I am, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 24, 1861. HOLLIS WHITE, Esq., Niagara Falls, N. Y. SIR: It being very desirable to employ a man of prudence and fidelity to detect persons in the service of the insurgents who may pass the Suspension Bridge either way you are appointed to that office at a compensation of $50 a month. Please signify your acceptance or otherwise. It will be your duty to arrest and hold for orders from this Department any person liable to reasonable suspicion of being in the service of the insurgents, according to your own knowledge or to information which you may receive from here or elsewhere. I am, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, [Lieut.] Col. ROMAINE LUJEANE, Commanding Thirty-second Pennsylvania Volunteers. SIR: Your letter of the 21st instant has been submitted to the majorgeneral commanding who directs me to inform you that he fully approves your course in arresting a man in Baltimore who used offensive language toward your regiment. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, A. V. COLBURN, Assistant Adjutant-General. NAVY DEPARTMENT, Washington, August 24, 1861. Mr. ROBERT TANSILL, Late Captain, U. S. Marine Corps, Boston, Mass. SIR: Your resignation as captain in the Marine Corps of the United States, tendered in your letter of the 17th May, 1861, has been received. By direction of the President your name has this day been stricken from the rolls of the Marine Corps. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, GIDEON WELLES. NAVY DEPARTMENT, Washington, August 24, 1861. Capt. WILLIAM L. HUDSON, Boston, Mass. SIR: Upon receipt of this order you will send under guard to Col. Martin Burke, commanding at Fort Lafayette, Capt. Robert Tansill and Lieut. Thomas S. Wilson, of the Marine Corps, and Midshipmen Henry B. Claiborne and Hilary Cenas, all of the frigate Congress. Very respectfully, Col. HENRY L. SCOTT, GIDEON WELLES. HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, Inspector-General, Commanding, &c., New York: General Scott says if the U. S. marshal of New York calls on you for assistance in making arrests give it. Bring [use?] his name if you have to take troops from the forts in the harbor. E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General. MAYOR'S OFFICE, Newport, R. I., August 26, 1861. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. SIR: I have good reason to believe that there are several disloyal persons in this city, some residents and some summer visitors, who have been and are in communication with the rebels in various secret ways. If I can discover anything of a reliable nature against any of them will you please inform me what steps I shall take to cause their arrest? I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. CRANSTON, Mayor. WASHINGTON, August 27, 1861. Lieut. Col. MARTIN BURKE, Fort Hamilton: Allow no writs to be served on you for any of the prisoners under your charge. Give the same answer as heretofore. * WINFIELD SCOTT. HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, Bvt. Col. CHARLES F. SMITH, New York, August 27, 1861. Lieutenant-Colonel Tenth Infantry, Fort Columbus, N. Y. SIR: I am instructed by the General-in-Chief to say that you will give any aid in troops that the marshal of the United States for the southern district of New York may require of you in making arrests. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, HENRY L. SCOTT, HEADQUARTERS, Fort Hamilton, August 28, 1861. Col. E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant-General, Hdqrs. of the Army, Washington. SIR: I have this day received from Lieut. W. Gwin, U. S. Navy, Capt. Robert Tansill and Lieut. Thomas S. Wilson, late of the Marine Corps, See Scott to Burke, August 2, 1861, Vol. I, this series, p. 636; also Seward to Scott, August 8, same volume, p. 637; also Scott to Secretary of War, August 13, and its inclosure, p. 41, this volume. and Henry B. Claiborne and Hilary B. Cenas, late midshipmen in the U. S. Navy as prisoners, and they are now confined in Fort Lafayette by order of the honorable the Secretary of the Navy. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, MARTIN BURKE, Lieutenant-Colonel, U. S. Army, Commanding. Col. E. D. TOWNSEND, FORT HAMILTON, N. Y., August 30, 1861. Assistant Adjutant-General, U. S. Army, Washington, D. C. COLONEL: At the request of Colonel Burke I have the honor to inclose a copy of a letter received by him to day from Mr. Cisco, assistant treasurer. The commanding officer at Fort Lafayette has been warned to be on the alert, and a copy of the inclosed letter has been sent to the revenue cutter lying in the stream off the fort. Major [C. C.] Sibley, Third Infantry, has also been notified to hold his command in readiness to repel any attempt of the kind mentioned in Mr. Cisco's letter. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, [Inclosure.] H. B. CLITZ, Major Twelfth Infantry. OFFICE U. S. ASSISTANT TREASURER, Col. MARTIN BURKE, U. S. Army. SIR: It has been communicated to me to-day by a gentleman of high character and position (whose name I am not at liberty to give) that preparations are making to attempt the forcible rescue of the prisoners of state now under your charge at Fort Lafayette. This statement coming from the source that it does strongly impresses me with belief I have therefore deemed it my duty to immediately communicate with you that you may if you deem it necessary strengthen yourself for any emergency. Yours, very respectfully, JOHN J. CISCO, U. S. Assistant Treasurer. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 31, 1861. Hon. WILLIAM H. CRANSTON, Mayor of Newport, R. I. SIR: I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 26th instant relative to supposed disloyal persons in your city. In reply I have to state that your best course would be to communicate with the marshal of the United States for the district of Rhode Island in regard to any person who in your judgment should be arrested for the cause referred to and to request the marshal to address this Department upon the subject by telegraph or letter when proper directions will be issued to him. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, 4 R R-SERIES II, VOL II F. W. SEWARD, OFFICE OF THE SUPT. OF THE METROPOLITAN POLICE, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. SIR: In order to be able to perform the service you sometimes require of me it will be necessary in future to have the revenue department at this post instructed to allow my officers opportunity and some facilities for boarding the incoming ships, steamers especially, before the parties sought for have time to escape or to transfer papers, &c., intrusted to their charge. In two cases lately I have been refused any such aid. In one case I applied in person at the office of the surveyor (on 20th instant), the collector at the time being at Newport, and the surveyor also absent from town, Mr. Benedict, the deputy surveyor, acting. I made a request to allow two of my detectives to go on board of the revenue steamer in order that they might have the best opportunity to arrest a person expected on the steamer Edinburg due that day who was suspected of being an agent of the rebels. My request was declined. specially urged it on the ground that the person for whom I was in search was a near relative to the boarding officer who had charge of the steamer, but without avail further than to refer me to this very boarding officer. Being anxious to secure the arrest of the person I then went to the steamer and made the request of Mr. Lowber, the boarding officer, which he declined unless ordered to comply by his superior officer; a very proper position for him to take. It became necessary for me then to have recourse to the quarantine department, at great inconvenience and loss of time, by which I was enabled to get my men on the ship but not until after the brother of the person for whom I was in search had been on board inquiring for his brother. He was not on that ship. Another case has since occurred presenting points which I think should not be withheld from you. On the 23d instant I received a telegram from you of that date directing the arrest of Edward Daley, of South Carolina, expected to return shortly from Europe. On the 27th instant, by telegram from Sandy Hook, I learned that the steamer City of Washington was on her way up, and immediately dispatched two officers to board her and look for Daley. I did not direct them to apply to the revenue department, but as under the last administration no obstruction to our officers was offered they very naturally went to the Barge Office to obtain passage to the ship on the revenue steamer. The report of Mr. Eustace, a copy of which is inclosed, will show that they were so obstructed in their proceedings that Daley may have very easily evaded them by remaining on board the ship or by landing at Castle Garden with the second-class passengers. I have to request that my men may be furnished with suitable facilities for boarding incoming vessels, especially when they are in the discharge of duty imposed on them under orders from the executive department. Very respectfully, yours, &c., [Inclosure.] JOHN A. KENNEDY, NEW YORK, August 27, 1861. JOHN A. KENNEDY, Esq., Superintendent of Police. SIR: In obedience to your order, in company with Officer Tiemen, I proceeded with telegram from the Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of |