portion of Maryland, all of Pennsylvania, and all of Delaware. As thus constituted, it has never been dissolved by general orders, either from the War Department or the headquarters of the Army..

General Orders, Numbers 15, from the headquarters of the Army, dated 17th of August last, created the Department of the Potomac, and absorbed Maryland and Delaware, but still left me in command of Pennsylvania, over which I continued to exercise military jurisdiction until the receipt of the communication referred to, and for this reason I continued of date my orders and communications at headquarters Department of Pennsylvania..

On the 20th of August last Major-General McClellan, by General Orders, Numbers 1, assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, comprising the troops serving in the former Department of Washington and Northeastern Virginia, in the valley of the Shenandoah, and in the States of Maryland and Delaware. The State of Pennsylvania was left untouched, and the Department of Pennsylvania was not dissolved either in terms or by designating the geographical boundaries of the command of Major-General McClellan. By the Army Register, dated September 10, 1861, page 72, the State of Pennsylvania, is assigned to the Department of the East. The Register was not sent to me until about six weeks after its date, and I did not notice until a late day the new arrangements of Departments. In the mean time my communications to the War Department, the headquarters of the Army, and the Army of the Potomac were all dated headquarters Department of Pennsylvania, without any intimation that I was acting under a misapprehension..

Communication also came to me from the Adjutant-General's Office, addressed to me as commanding the Department of Pennsylvania. I inclose four envelopes, three of them post-marked as late as November, with the same address. The communication which they contained were directed in the same manner. During the whole of this period I continued to exercise military jurisdiction over the State of Pennsylvania, ordering troops from thence from time to time and receiving muster rolls from the mustering officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Ruff..

I have not gone into this detail from the purpose of contending against the views of the subject presented in your communication of the 6th instant, but to explain that, as the Department of Pennsylvania had not been dissolved, but only a portion of it, as originally organized, taken away be general orders, I assumed that it still existed. The only public considerations connected with the subject are those which concern the sentences in course of execution pronounced by the court-martial of which Colonel Curtenius was president. Only on of the commissioned officers tried was dismissed, the others were acquitted; but a number of privates sentenced for very grave offenses escaped punishment, and two have been dishonorably discharged from the service. But if, as I suppose, it involves the question of double rations, there are personal considerations of some importance to myself, as I have received my pay and emoluments for September, and may be called on to refund the double rations. In that case I shall, without intending any disrespect, contend before the proper authority, first, that the Department of Pennsylvania was never dissolved by general orders; second, that I performed the duties of commanding general thereof until November 6; and, third, that I was entitled to notice of its absorption with others..

I desire to suggest to the Commanding General that the general in command of Baltimore is in great need of the powers incidental to a.