plundering friend and foe, firing on unarmed boats filled with women and children and on small parties of soldiers, always from ambush or where they have every advantage, are entitled to the protection and amenities of civilized warfare is a question which I think you would settle very quickly in the abstract. In practice we will promptly acknowledge the well-established rights of war to parties in uniform, but many gentlemen of the South have beseeched me to protect the people against the acts and inevitable result of this war of uniformed bands who when dispersed mingle with the people and draw on them the consequences of their individuals acts. You know full well that it is to the interest of the people of the South that we should not disperse our troops as guerrillas, but at that game your guerrillas would meet their equals and the world would be shocked by the acts of atrocity resulting from such warfare. We endeavor to act in large masses, and must insist that the troops of the Confederacy who claim the peculiar rights of belligerents should be know by their dress, so as to be distinguished from the inhabitants. I refer you to the proclamation of your [E.] Kirby Smith in Kentucky on this very point.

I will refer your letters to General Curtis, at Saint Louis, with whom I beg you will hereafter confer on all matters under a flag of truce. He commands our forces west of the Mississippi, and I am not aware as yet that any question has arisen under my command at Memphis that concerns your command. The idea of your comments on the failure of "your efforts to induce our army to conform to the usages of civilized warfare" excites a smile. Indeed, you should not indulge in such language in official letters.

I am, &c., your obedient servant,

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS PAROLED PRISONERS,
Columbus, Ohio, September 28, 1862.

General L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General, &c.

SIR: I telegraphed the Secretary of War day before yesterday not to send any more paroled prisoners to Camp Chase. As the reasons could not be sent by telegram I hasten to give them by letter. One regiment has at last been organized and its last companies are now being paid off. But to give a better idea of the worth of such an organization I give you an informal morning report substantially as it was given me:

Morning Report of First Regiment Paroled Prisoners.

Commissioned and non-commissioned officers, musicians privates: Company A, present for duty, 24; Company C, present for duty, 41; Company D, present for duty, 27; Company E, report not in, but at roll-call, 46. The other companies are being paid off.

Morning reports show: Cavalry, present for duty, 12. Artillery, Company D, present for duty, 101; Company A, present for duty, 23.

All the above campaigned when paid off and marched to camp were full to the maximum. All not present at roll-call have deserted. I have already informed the Secretary of War that when I visited Camp Chase the day of my arrival (and it was the second day after receiving my order to come) I found about 3,000 paroled soldiers present. There had never been such a thing as enforcement of order amongst them;