SAINT LOUIS, February 11, 1862.

Major-General McCLELLAN:

Colonel Foster has captured in Chariton, North Missouri, 19 rebels, 18 horses, and 142 kegs of powder.

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI, Saint Louis, February 11, 1862.

Colonel W. P. CARLIN,
Pilot Knob, Mo.:

What additional forces do you require to occupy Doniphan and to capture Pocahontas? When can you move? I have two regiments of cavalry ready to send you if you can say so. Colonel Callender is preparing the light artillery you asked for. What more will you want for such an expedition?

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General.

PILOT KNOB, February 11, 1862.

General HALLECK:

Your dispatch received. I require one regiment of infantry and one of cavalry more than I now have to occupy Doniphan and capture Pocohontas. Two companies of artillery and two of cavalry can occupy this post while I am on the expedition. I can use the two regiments of cavalry with advantage, but want at least one regiment more of infantry. I will also require transportation for all the additional force, say 600 wagons and teams more than I have. I want the light artillery and horses and a supply of ammunition for the guns. The roads are improving rapidly. I wish to undertake expedition.

W. P. CARLIN.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, Washington, February 11, 1862.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,
Secretary of War:

SIR: I would respectfully submit to you the following extracts taken from the report of Major A. Baird, assistant inspector-general, U. S. Army, on the inspection of the Kansas troops, viz:

If the practice of seizing and confiscating the private property of rebels, which is now extensively carried on by the troops known as Lane's brigade, is to be continued, how may it be managed so as to prevent the troops being demoralized and the Government defrauded?

The practice has become so fixed and general that I am convinced that orders arresting it would not be obeyed, and that only way of putting a stop to it would be to remove the Kansas troops to some other field of action.

The fact that the property of citizens seized and confiscated by the troops engaged in the service of the United States is substantiated by both official and reliable private evidence, and form the frequent repetition of these acts the commanding offices in Kansas appear to hae assumed its legality. The authority under which it is done is unknown to me, further than such destruction of private as is unavoidable from a state of war, conducted according to the established usages