Tenn., and the surrounding counties, which in many instances have resulted in the arrest, incarceration and maltreatment of non-combatants and peaceful citizens of the Confederate States, and in others in the unjustifiable destruction of private property without compensation and contrary to the rules and practice of civilized warfare: Therefore, it is ordered that the aforesaid Colonel Lowe and Colonel A. C. Harding, Eighth Illinois Volunteers, U. S. Army, be and they are hereby declared no longer entitled to be regarded as soldiers, and that they have forfeited all claim to the benefits of the cartel existing between the Governments of the Confederate States and the United States for the exchange of prisoners of war, and further that in the event of their capture they shall be kept in close confinement and treated as felons until otherwise ordered by the President of the Confederate States.

III. And whereas, other officers of the U. S. Army yet unknown to the Confederate Government are represented and believed to have participated in the wrongs and outrages before referred to: Therefore, it is also ordered that the provisions of the first paragraph of this order shall be applicable to any other officers of the Federal Army in the State of Tennessee, upon proof of their guilt deemed satisfactory by the commanding officer of the department in which they may be captured and held.

* * * * *

By order:

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

[Inclosure Numbers 2.]

Extract from a communication from Clarksville, Tenn.

The commander above named and others have been and still are engaged in arresting many of the citizens of this portion of country and placing them in a loathsome dungeon and keeping them there unless they take the oath of allegiance, these citizens being in no way connected with the Confederate Army.

They have gone to the premises of many citizens seizing them and destroying or carrying away all their property of every description. In some cases they burn everything before them. They have taken away hundreds of negroes; they have visited houses insulting ladies and threatening to shoot, stab, bayonet and even burn them. They have robbed them of their wardrobes - not only of men, but those of women and children.

They are also in the habit of taking all the negroes. We in this city have been visited by these men and treated in a savage and brutal manner, and they daily threaten to return and utterly destroy the city and imprison all the citizens who do not take the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government.

The aforesaid Harding visited a church in the country and arrested two ministers of the gospel and placed them in prison, where they still are. He also took the horses and carriages from the congregation and required the persons present, both male and female, to take the oath or go to prison, and he proclaims that every man in the country shall be arrested and either take the oath or go to the dungeon. This is our present condition.

Now we are wholly unprepared to repel these insults and oppression. It is true there are still many men here who are willing to meet them, but we are wholly destitute of both arms and ammunition, nor is there any military force in this vicinity that is able to repel them.