[Inclosure Numbers 1. -Translation.]

NAVAL DIVISION OF THE GULF AND NORTH AMERICA,

Office of the Admiral, New Orleans, November 17, 1862.

Major-General BUTLER,

Commanding Department of the Gulf.

GENERAL: After the interview which I had the honor to have with you last Friday, 14th instant, and in which you had the complaisance to communicate to me the different papers relating to the affair [of] Gautherin and Company, and in consequence of remarks which it was my duty to make to you, I had left you with the conviction that Messrs. Le More would be detained only provisionally, until a regular court would decide upon the offense with which they are charged, namely, to be engaged in unlawful commerce with the Government of the Confederate States. It is in this sense that I have rendered an account to my Government by the mail which left last Saturday.

I have just learned that Mr. Alfred Le More is confined in Fort Pickens, not to suffer a provisional imprisonment, but with the order of close confinement at hard labor with ball and chain, and that Mr. Jules Le More is to leave to-day for Fort Jackson in the same conditions.

These measures are so serious that I must doubt the veracity of the assertion. But not having the means to verify it I should be much obliged to you, general, if you would let me know the present position of these gentlemen and the nature of the orders which you thought proper to give in their regard.

However, if against my expectations Mr. Alfred Le More has been submitted to such a treatment, without that legal forms have been respected, without that the consul of France has been informed, I should see myself with regret in the necessity to support near you the official protest which in this case Mr. Mejan would have to address to you against an ordered which would be outside of all regular legislation.

Please accept, general, the assurance of my high consideration.

The contra-admiral, commanding-in-chief the Naval Division of the Gulf and North America.

REYNAUD.

[Inclosure Numbers 2.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, November 18, 1862.

Admiral REYNAUD,

Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Division of the Gulf and North America.

ADMIRAL: You were quite correct in you understanding of the conversation upon the subject of the disposition made of Alfred and Jules Le More, with which you did me the honor to favor me.

I have them at present detained for trial, which I propose shall take place immediately after the affair upon the Conlon plantation can be investigated, which you desired should have the preference, as soon as the cause now before the military commission is finished.

In the meantime I have ordered Jules Le More to Fort Jackson for safe-keeping till further orders, and as I do not think the United States is bound to feed and clothe anybody without an equivalent, I have directed that he be put at work.

The case of Alfred Le More stands differently in this, that he treated my authority with contempt, refused to answer all proper questions put