had nothing left to contend with. I have said enough to satisfy you of the importance of this matter. With renewed apologies for troubling you with it,

I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. A. ALSTON.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 205.
Richmond, Va., August 30, 1864.

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XXII. No instructions having been given by this Department, and some doubt existing as to the nature of the authority for the recent expedition of Brigadier General J. H. Morgan into Kentucky, and grave representations from different sources having been received concerning its events, and of excesses and irregularities, amounting in many instances to depredations and spoliation, alleged to have been committed by that command, not merely through the license of the soldiery, which of itself would have been discreditable to the command, but with the tolerance, if not connivance, of officers of different grades of authority therein, all of which reflects reproach and disgrace upon the character of our service and demands investigation and correction, it is ordered that Brigadier General J. H. Morgan be suspended from command and a court of inquiry, to consist of Major General Robert Ransom, Colonel R. H. Chilton, assistant adjutant and inspector-general, and Colonel M. H. Cofer, Sixth Kentucky Volunteers, with Colonel William H. Payne, Fourth Virginia Cavalry, as recorder, be at once constituted and convened, to meet at Abingdon, in Southwestern Virginia on the 10th day of September next, or as soon thereafter as practicable, to make inquiry and report, with the evidence, their opinion on the merits of the case, as to the source and extent of the authority upon which said expedition was undertaken, the organization and strength of the command at starting, and the number brought back, distinguishing the number of those recruited and those who started with the command, as likewise in regard to the general conduct of the expedition and the events marking it; also, especially, whether the same was attended with undue license, and marked by robberies, depredations, or unwarrantable injuries to the people or corporations of that State; whether and to what extent such outrages were tolerated by or participated in by the officers of the command, and whether property or effects of any kind seized by military authority or undue license have been turned over or accounted for to the proper officers, or have been appropriated or wasted.

By command of the Secretary of War:

JNO WITHERS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 218.
Richmond, September 14, 1864

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XXXI. A court of inquiry, to consist of Major General Robert Ransom, Jr., Provisional Army, C. S. ; Colonel R. H. Chilton, assistant adjutant and inspector general, and Lieutenant Colonel G. W. Connor, Fifth Kentucky Volunteers, will assemble at Abingdon, Southwestern Virginia, on the 20th instant, or as soon thereafter as practicable, to examine into the abuses reported to have been practiced by the command recently in Kentucky under the late Brigadier-General Morgan. The