[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, Cincinnati, Ohio, December 23, 1862.

Respectfully returned to Colonel Sipes, Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry, military commander, Covington, Ky., who will prepare a tabular statement furnishing the information called for by the resolution of the Senate. This report will be returned to these headquarters with the statement called for.

By order of Major-General Wright:

C. W. FOSTER,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, December 19, 1862.

Major General A. E. BURNSIDE,

Commanding U. S. Forces opposite Fredericksburg, Va.

GENERAL: I have been informed that Private John W. Irwin, of Company A, Ninth Virginia Cavalry, has been captured by some of the troops under your command and is being tried* as a spy. Presuming if this information be correct that the object of the investigation is to ascertain the truth I have thought proper to make known to you the facts connected with the absence of Private John W. Irwin from his regiment as reported to me by Colonel Beale, commanding Ninth Virginia Cavalry, and Brigadier General W. H. F. Lee, commanding the brigade to which the regiment belongs. While the brigade was at Brandy Station, in Culpeper County, Private Irwin received permission from his brigade commander about the 14th of November to visit his home in Stafford County to procure a fresh horse. This is a permission commonly given in similar cases and at the time I was not known that the place to which Private Irwin wished to proceed was within the lines of your army.

The person in question is described to me as follows: Small figure, about 5 feet 9 inches high, complexion dark, hair mahogany and eyes blue. Age about eighteen years and manner rather sprightly.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. E. LEE,

General.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS, Washington, D. C., December 19, 1862.

Major General W. S. ROSECRANS, Commanding, Nashville, Tenn.:

Duplicate rolls should accompany prisoners sent to Vicksburg for exchange, one with a receipt to be returned by a messenger to the Adjutant-General for this office.

By order of the Secretary of War:

W. HOFFMAN,

Commissary-General of Prisoners.

WASHINGTON, D. C., December 19, 1862.

Major General S. R. CURTIS:

All prisoners delivered at Aiken's Landing up to 11th of November are exchanged. See Orders, No. 191, first clause.

W. HOFFMAN,

Commissary-General of Prisoners.

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

*See p. 103 for case of Irwin.

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