manding the DIVISION forbidding further operations of this kind. In regard to persons being passed through the lines without taking the oath of allegiance, I discover five passes or special permits to have been given to ladies continuously from the 5th of May till nw, by Major McKee, Eleventh Illinois Infantry, provost- marshal of the district of Vicksburg. One of these papers also includes a special permission to take out all supplies which she needs for the family to which she belongs without having an approval at the headquarters of the post. The ladies are Miss Mary Buckner, Miss Alice Jenkins, Mrs. Dunbar, Miss Mary Ker, Miss Ophelia Meyers; also Frank Surget, who refused to take the oath of allegiance, was given an unlimited pass, signed by Brigadier General L. Thomas, Adjutant- General, by order of the Secretary of War. Lieutenant Parker, assistant provost- marshal, reports also that Adjutant- General Thomas, in April, gave to one Elijah Smith, a citizen who had not taken the oath of allegiance, the countersign for the day. A lady of high position and great accomplishment, Mrs. Hampton Elliott, after having been repeatedly refused permit to leave the district by the commanding officer and provost- marshal, because she refused to take the oath, was granted a permit by Captain Lorenzo Thomas, Jr., First Artillery, aide- de- camp to Brigadier General Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant- General, and left the post without the knowledge of the proper authorities. The pass read as follows:

NATCHEZ, MISS., July 8, 1864.

Mrs. Elliott has permission to go to any place in the United States with her two sons. Her trunk and baggage will not be subject to inspection or search.

By order of the Secretary of War:

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant- General.

L. THOMAS, JR.,

Captain First Artillery, Aide- de- Camp.

The commanding officer on discovering the fact arrested Captain Thomas and sent him to report to Major- General Slocum, at Vicksburg, and at the same time wrote a dispatch to the adjutant- general of the District of Vicksburg explaining the case. Captain Thomas arrived at Vicksburg in the absence of General Slocum, and was released by his adjutant- general and sent back here. The communication of the commanding officer has not been replied to. A copy is hereto annexed,* and I ask special attention to it. General Thomas at the time was not within a thousand miles of this place. As I mentioned before, an brother of Captain Thomas occupies as leasee one of the finest plantations in this vicinity, and the commissary of subsistence, Captain Whitney, reports that Captain Thomas has at different times procured from the subsistence stores here for the use of the army, four barrels of whisky and one box of candles for plantation use. On drawing the supplies he has signed the following certificate:

I certify that I require the following named subsistence stores for the use of myself and mess, and none others.

He states that his father, General Thomas, told him to get the whisky for that purpose. Captain Whitney reports also that on one occasion he gave an order on the commissary for a barrel of whisky and signed it "By order of the Secretary of War," with the same authentication that Mrs. Elliott's pass had.

General Thomas is still in the North. Captain Thomas says that his father particularly directed him to sign passes in that way in his absence.

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*See inclosure Numbers 2, p. 193.

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