forty-eight hours. The report is very improbable, but on Colonel Smith's dispatch I have ordered a detachment of infantry and a six-gun rifled battery to the island to-day. The U. S. steamer Michigan is somewhere in Lake Erie. Cannot the Navy Department send her to the assistance of Colonel Pierson?*

J. D. COX,

Brigadier-General, Commanding District of Ohio.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, D. C., November 11, 1863.

GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA,

Harrisburg:

The British minister, Lord Lyons, has to-night officially notified the Government that, from telegraphic information received from the Governor-General of Canada, there is reason to believe that a plot is on foot by persons hostile to the United States, who have found an asylum in Canada, to invade the United States and destroy the city of Buffalo; that they propose to take possession of some of the steam-boats on Lake Erie, to surprise Johnson's Island, and set free the prisoners of war confined there, and to proceed with them to attack Buffalo. The Government will employ all the means in its power to suppress this plot, but it is deemed proper to communicate to you the information received from the British minister, in order that you may co- operate with the General Government in protecting the territory of the United States from invasion by the rebels and their aiders and abettors who have found refuge in Canada.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

(Copy to Governors of Ohio, Columbus; Indiana, Indianpolis; Illinois, Springfield; Michigan, Detroit; New York, Albany.)

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, D. C., November 11, 1863.

MAYOR OF BUFFALO, N. Y.:

The British minister, Lord Lyons, has to-night officially notified the Government that, from telegraphic information received from the Governor-General of Canada, there is reason to believe that a plot is on foot by persons hostile to the United States, who have found an asylum in Canada, to invade the United States and destroy the city of Buffalo; that they propose to take possession of some of the steam-boats on Lake Erie, to surprise Johnson's Island, and set free the prisoners of war confined there, and to proceed with them to attack Buffalo. This Government will employ all the means in its power to suppress any hostile attack from Canada, but as other towns and cities on the shores of the lakes are exposed to the same danger, it is deemed proper to communicate this information to you in order that any precautions which the circumstances of the came permit may be taken. The Governor-General suggests that steam-boats should be

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* In connection with this subject see also Pierson to Hoffman, November 9, 1863, Series II, Vol. VI, p. 491.

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