proper case for imprisonment that the testimony shall be taken under oath and record sent with the accused to the officer who is to have the custody of him. This is especially necessary when the commitment is made by a military commission and the party accused is sent to a distance and placed like the prisoners at Fort Wool under the immediate supervision of the commanding officer of the department or army corps. The only proper exception to the rule is where prisoners are temporarily detained during military movements in order that they may not give information to the enemy.

I consider it my duty to go once in three or four weeks to the places of imprisonment within my command, inquire into the causes of arrest and discharge all persons against whom charges sustained by satisfactory proof are not on file. I did not enter into a minute examination of the persons sent here by your order nor did I release any one of them, but referred the whole matter to you for explanation; and it is proper to suggest that an imputation of undue susceptibility on my part or the general reprobation of the guilt of faithless citizens for whom when their guilt is clearly shown I have quite as little sympathy as yourself is not an answer to the question of culpability in special cases. The paper you sent me is all very well as far as it goes, but it is no more complete without a transcript of the evidence on which the allegations are founded than a memorandum of the crime and the sentence of a military prisoner would be without the record of the proceedings of the court. You will please therefore send to me the testimony taken by the military commission before whom the examination was made.

It is proper to remark here that a military commission not appointed by the commanding general of the army or the army corps is a mere court of inquiry, and its proceedings can only be regarded in the light of information for the guidance of the officer who instituted it and on whom the whole responsibility of any action from the necessity of the case devolve.

In regard to persons whom you think right to arrest and detain under your immediate direction I have nothing to say. You are personally responsible for them, and as you attention will be frequently called to them the duration of their imprisonment will be likely to be influenced by considerations which might be overlooked if they were at a distance. I am therefore quite willing to leave them in your hands. But when a prisoner is sent here and comes under my immediate observation and care I wish the whole case to be presented to me.

The engineer department has called on me to remove the prisoners from Fort Wood that the work may not be interrupted. I have sent away all the military prisoners and wish to dispose of those who are confined for political causes. When I have received from you a full report of the case which arose under your command I will dispose of them and send to you all the prisoners whom I do not release, or if you prefer it (and it would be much more satisfactory to me) I would send them all to you without going into any examination myself and leave it to you to dispose of them as you think right. If you have no suitable guard-house there is a jail near your headquarters where they may be securely confined.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.