not having given your personal attention to this exchange, as you intimate in your communication of the-instant that you remained in Washington for the purpose, by authority of the commanding general, beyond the time originally allotted you by General Franklin, then commanding the Left Grand Division.

S. WILLIAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
February 19, 1863.

Colonel J. C. KELTON,]

Assistant Adjutant-General, Washington, D. C.:

COLONEL: I would respectfully report, for the information of the General-in-Chief, that having been informed that conscription by the enemy were to take place in the counties below this point, on the Neck, between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers; also that a depot of supplies for the enemy existed at Heathsville, and that the mail between Baltimore and the South was received there, I dispatched a force by water to visit this and other points, and seize such supplies as they might find, and all persons and papers connected therewith. The results of the expedition are contained in the reports of Colonels Fairchild, Gavin, and others commanding the forces sent down.*

The horses and mules seized have been turned over to the First Army Corps, at the request of General Reynolds, to be taken up on the returns of his quartermaster. The provisions were turned over to his commissary, to be taken up on his return. The rest of the property mentioned, in the inclosed reports, with the contrabands, have been ordered to be turned over to the chief quartermaster of this army. The mail-bags contained a number of United States Government envelopes, which will be forwarded to the Postmaster-General. The bags themselves will be turned in to the postmaster at these headquarters for use. The mail matter, as soon as it has been examined by the provost-marshal, for the purpose of gaining any information therefrom useful here, will be forwarded to the Dead-Letter Office, in accordance with the provision of General Orders, No. 7, War Department, January 29, 1862. I also inclose, for the information of the commanding general, a copy of a letter this day transmitted to General Heintzelman, commanding the Defenses of Washington. I would also report that the commander of the Potomac flotilla has been ordered to send a vessel up the Rappahannock for the purpose of capturing or destroying the vessels used for transportation of supplies from the Neck to the enemy.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOSEPH HOOKER,

Major-General, Commanding.

[Inclosures.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
February 18, 1863.

Major-General HEINTZELMAN,

Commanding, &c., Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: Information from reliable sources has reached us here that sutlers, probably Jews, having your passes, drive through our lines-some toward Warrenton, some for the ostensible purpose of coming to

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* See Part I, pp.12,15,16.

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