HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO,
Louisville, Ky., October 30, 1862.

General BOYLE, Commanding U. S. Forces, Louisville:

Paragraph II of General Orders, Numbers 49, October 26, was made general in terms intentionally but it must be executed with caution and discretion. No arrest should be made until proof is submitted to you sufficient justify it, and the arrest should then only be made on your special order in each case. It is intended to get rid of all who have actually aided in the invasion, but the order should not be permitted to serve as authority for improper arrests or persecution of persons not guilty.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. M. WRIGHT,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 174.
Washington, October 30, 1862.

I. By a military commission which convened in Santa Fe, N. Mex., on the 14th day of July, 1862, pursuant to Special Orders, Numbers 119, dated Headquarters Department of New Mexico, Santa Fe, N. Mex., July 8, 1862, and of which Major General D. Wallen, Seventh Infantry, was president, was arraigned and tried-

JOSE MARIA RIVAS.

CHARGE: Lurking or acting as a spy.

Specification. -In this, that the said Jose Maria Rivas did during the winter of 1861-62 and the spring of 1862 act as spy against the Federal troops in New Mexico-first for Colonel Baylor, then for General Sibley, and until caught as a spy and guide for Captain Coopwood, all of the Confederate forces. And the said Rivas did during the greater part of the time above mentioned continue to act as a spy and guide adversely to the Federal Government, to which he owed allegiance.

To which the prisoner pleaded as follows:

To the specification, "Not guilty. "

The charge, "Not guilty. "

The commission after mature deliberation upon the testimony adduced found the prisoner as follows:

Of so much of the specification as sets forth that he acted as spy for the Confederate forces and against the Government of the United States in the winter of 1861-62, "Guilty. "

And of the charge, "Guilty. "

And the commission does therefore sentence him, Jose Maria Rivas, to be shot to death by a detachment of New Mexico volunteers at such time and place as the department commander may designate, two-thirds of the members concurring therein.

II. In accordance with the fifth section of the act approved July 17, 1862, the proceedings of the military commission in the case of Jose Maria Rivas have been submitted to the President of the United States. The following is the order in the case:

OCTOBER 25, 1862.

Waiving the question of jurisdiction in the case the sentences not approved because the accused is not shown to have been within our lines in disguise or by false pretense except by hearsay testimony, and because in his admission that he was a spy he may not have understood the technical term and may have meant no more than that he was a scout of the enemy. He clearly is a prisoner of war.

A. LINCOLN.

By order of the Secretary of War:

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.