the messenger has not been heard from. We shall try to forward this by a flag of truce and hope our application will be considered at your earliest convenience. Permit us to refer to Rev. J. B. Jetter, D. D., Rev. T. W. Moore, D. D. ; Honorable R. M. T. Hunter, Honorable D. C. de Jarnette, Rev. Moses D. Hoge, D. D. ; Commander M. F. Maury, Dr. John P. Little, Dr. B. R. Wellford, B. R. Wellford, Jr., and D. H. Gordon, esq., and Honorable William Smith.

CHARLES C. WELLFORD.

THOMAS F. KNOX.

B. T. GILL.

JAMES McGUIRE.

JAS. H. BRADLEY.

W. S. BROADDUS.

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPARTMENT,
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE. Numbers 53.
Richmond, Va., July 31, 1862.

* * * * * * *

III. Paragraph I, General Orders, No. 44, current series, is hereby revoked, and all paroled prisoners whose regiments are in the East will report at Richmond, Va., and those whose regiments are in the West, at Vicksburg, Miss.

IV. All seizures and impressments of any description of property whatever and especially of arms and ordnance stores belonging to the State of the Confederacy are hereby prohibited, and officers of the C. S. Army are enjoined to abstain carefully from such seizures and ordered to make prompt restitution.

By command of the Secretary of War.

S. COOPER.

Adjutant and Inspector General.

RICHMOND, VA., July 31, 1862

General ROBERT E. LEE, Commanding, &c.

SIR; On the 22nd of this month a cartel for a general exchange of prisoners of war was signed between, Major General D. H. Hill, behalf of the Confederate States, and Major General John A. Dix, in behalf of the United States.

By the terms of that cartel it is stipulated that all prisoners of war hereafter taken shall be discharged on parole until exchanged.

Scarcely had that cartel been signed when the military authorities of the United States commenced a practice changing the character of the war from such as becomes civilized nations into a campaign of indiscriminate robbery and murder.

The general orders issued by the Secretary of War of the United States in the city of Washington on the very day that the cartel was signed in Virginia directs the military commanders of the United States to take the private property of our people for the convenience and use of their armies without compensation.

The general orders issued by Major-General Pope on the 23rd of July, the day after the signing of the cartel, directs the murder of our peaceful inhabitants as spies if found quietly tilling their farms in his rear, even outside of his lines, and one of his brigadier-generals, Steinwehr,