which I inclose herewith. A few days after I was assigned to the command of this district I asked General French if I had command of the prison-guard at Salisbury. He answered, "The prison-guard at Salisbury is under your command. " A copy of my order assuming command of the district was then sent to the commanding officer. He was also required to send in regular returns of his guard and the names of the officers. But as the orders given by me did not affect the garrison in any respect I presume the one referred to in your telegram is the one given by General French, which explains itself.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. G. MARTIN,

Brigadier-General.

P. S. - In the letter inclosing General French's order to the commanding officer at Salisbury he was directed to report the number of prisoners there and what additional guard, if any, was necessary for the post after removing the company of the Fifty-seventh Regiment.

J. G. M.

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT, CONTRACT BUREAU,

Richmond, September 13, 1862.

Brigadier General JOHN H. WINDER, Richmond, Va.

GENERAL: Thanks to the permit which you had the kindness to extend to me on the 11th instant I had an interview with Frank D. Orme, who satisfied me as to the causes which had brought him into our lines and which resulted in his capture together with that of some sixty other Yankee civilians. He states to me that an order emanating from Stanton, the Secretary of War of the late United States, and communicated by the corresponding heads of departments, directed him in common with other Federal clerks to proceed to the fields of Pope's victories to bury the dead and tend the wounded, for which offices he could not spare his victorious soldiery. I have not the least doubt that the poor devil was put in a dilemma between the sympathies of his heart and the retention of office, which is but a convertible term with many for the despotism of poverty. I know from personal experience that had I not in June, 1861, on the return from my mission to Central America had some hoarded means I would not only have been unable to reach our Southern territory, but would most probably have tenanted some of the Spielbergs or Bastiles of the constitutional expounder of the law of despotism.

I take a great interest in the condition and fate of young Orme, who I beg to repeat stands so high in the estimation of myself and wife that when under a special passport from Seward granted to the wife and children of a returning minister (they had accompanied my legation abroad) they left Washington for Richmond in August of last year, Mrs. Dimitry in disseminating our personal property, which she was forbidden to remove, deposited much of it of great value with the subject of this note. That it is still safe I have abundant assurance and proof.

Now, general, without knowing or judging of the intents of our Government in relation to these captured civilians and aware at the same time that the proceedings usual in the case of prisoners of war can hardly be expected to be extended to them, their being a novel and exceptional case of capture, conscious of the danger which might result to our safety as belligerents from having a released and intelligent pris-