obliterated by a prompt co-operate of its citizens in bringing the guilty to justice.

In view of the disposition manifested by citizens of the town and parish to harbor and screen the offenders, therefore I, John A. Keith, lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-first Regiment Indiana Volunteers, being armed with proper authority from General Butler, do hereby solemnly declare and proclaim that unless the names of these murderers are given up within forty-eight hours, with such information of their hiding places as will lead to their speedy apprehension, not a vestige of the town of Houma shall be left to identify its formed location, and the plantations in the parish of Terre Bonne shall suffer in a like degree.

It is to be regretted that indecent and worthy persons may suffer in this event, but a terrible example is necessary to teach the people of Louisiana that interest, if not humanity, should prompt them to discourage acts of cold-blooded assassination.

The United States troops will quarter in Terre Bonne Parish until these murderers are brought to justice or it becomes evident they cannot be found; in which case prominent citizens of Houma, known to have been sympathizers, some of whom have already been arrested, will be publicly executed as murderers.

JOHN A. KEITH,

Lieutenant-Colonel Twenty-first Indiana Volunteers.

HOUMA, LA., May 14, 1862.

D.

HDQRS. DETACHMENT TWENTY-FIRST INDIANA VOLS., Houma, La., May 16, 1862.

In compliance with an order form Major-General Butler I hereby order the following property of the parties hereinafter named destroyed by fire or otherwise, but in such a manner as not to endanger or destroy adjacent property owned by parties not herein named-said property all situated in the parish of Terre Bonne, to wit:

Buildings, out-buildings and personal property of Howard Bond near the town of Houma; buildings on the premises of Colonel Robinson; property of F. Gatewood; real and personal property of Dr. Jennings; property of A. Wood; the Ceres newspaper establishment; parish jail;' property of B. Cooper; property of Gilbert Hatch; house of E. N. Dutrail; property of -- Crewell.

The parties above named, and whose property it to be destroyed, are known to be identified in a greater or less degree in the murder of two soldiers and wounding of two others belonging to the Twenty-first Indiana Volunteers, on the --- day of May, near Houma. The jail is to be destroyed because permitted to be used as a place of confinement of one of the wounded men.

JOHN A. KEITH,
Lieutenant Col. Twenty-first Ind. Vols., Comdg. Detachment.

[Inclosure D.]

UNITED STATES GUNBOAT KENNEBEC, Below Vicksburg, Miss., May 22, 1862.

DEAR GENERAL: I received your kind note, together with the mail, by the stammer Fox. My ship has got off, and was about 40 or 50 miles below Vicksburg, at Grand Gulf, which is the most dangerous part of the river, and beyond which I am unwilling to risk the large ships,