arrests except in cases where there is actual proof of active hostility against the Confederate Government.

Traffic with the enemy is to be prevented. I know of no punishment, however, that can be legally inflicted beyond the confiscation of goods or payment to the Confederate Government the value of the article sold. I inclose copy of act* of Congress as furnished me by Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, Richmond. Unless there are other reasons for detaining the parties themselves engaged in this traffic I think that after seizure and confiscation of their goods thus obtained they should be released from arrest.

Very respectfully, &c.,

J. B. PEMBERTON,

Lieutenant-General, Commanding.

Numbers 18.] CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, London, October 30, 1862.

Honorable J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.

SIR: It becomes my painful duty to inform the Government of an occurrence which has recently happened on board the C. S. ship Sumter, lying in the Bay of Gibraltar. Captain Semmes and his officers having been transferred to the Alabama, the Sumter was left in charge of a midshipman and boat's crew only, a guard deemed sufficient by Captain Semmes. On the 14th of this month I received a telegram from Sergeant Stephenson, of the marines (one of those left in charge of the ship), that Acting Midshipman Andrews (in command(had been shot and killed by one of the men named Hester, who was master's mate; that Hester had been taken into custody by the civil authorities there and asking for instructions. I immediately replied by telegraph to Sergeant Stephenson directing him to take charge of the ship and the public property on board, and that an officer would be sent at once to relieve him. Lieutenant Chapman, a former officer of the Sumter, was then in Paris on duty assigned him by the Secretary of the Navy. In the emergency I wrote to and ordered him to proceed immediately to Gibraltar and take command of the ship, after the death of Midshipman Andrews and the arrest of the master's mate the only person on board having the semblance of authority being the sergeant of marines. Some days after I received a letter dated on board the Sumter the 17th of October, signed by all the ship's crew (only nine in number), including the sergeant of marines, denouncing in strong terms the act of Hester as a cool, deliberate murder and promising that everything should be done by those on board to take care of the ship until further orders. I subsequently received two letters from a Mr. George F. Cornwell, dated respectively at Gibraltar the 17th and 22nd of October, informing me that he had been engaged as counsel by Hester, and stating that the latter fully owned the act and vindicated it on the ground that Midshipman Andrews had termination to take the vessel out of this port (Gibraltar) and give her up at Algeciras to the U. S. ship Supply, then in the latter port, and had threatened to shot any one who opposed his purpose. Mr. Hester not being (as he says) able to rely on the crew adopted this fatal course and believes that he has only done his duty. I should have stated above that in the letter from the crew of the Sumter no particulars of the affair were given nor

---------------

*Not found.

---------------