[Inclosure Numbers 1.]

GRENADA, November 23, 1863.

General JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON,

Meridian. Miss.:

The civil authorities in North Mississippi are issuing writs to recover wagons and teams captured trading with the enemy. Am I to regard these writs? trading is bering carried on largely; urgent and prompt measures are necessary to stop it. I advise that all captures be confiscated to the Government at once. Will hold property till I hear from you.

S. D. LEE,

Major-General.

[Inclosure Numbers 2.]

MERIDIAN, November 23, 1863.

Major General S. D. LEE,

Grenada, Miss.:

The Secretary of War decides that wagons and teams employed in trade with the enemy are subject to confiscation; therefore maintain such confiscations.

JOS. E. JOHNSTON

[Inclosure Numbers 3.]

FEBRUARY 18, 1864.

ADJUTANT-GENERAL:

Refer to Lieutenant-General Polk. At the date of this seizure there was no law nor any orders for the seizure of the articles mention. The orders of Major-General Lee were without any authority for their support. The Constitution of the Confederate States forbids the confiscation of property by any such officer or by any such summary proceeding. If this man has done anything worthy of death or bonds, he must be tried and punished according to law by a judicial tribunal.

Restore the property unless some judicial proceeding is taken to hold it.

By order:

J. A. CAMPBELL,

Assistant Secretary of War.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS FORREST'S CAVALRY,

Numbers 33.
Columbus, March 13, 1864.

Colonel R. McCulloch, commanding division, will order one battalion to move to Bankston (10 miles south of Greensborough), and report to J. M. Wesson, president of manufacturing company, for the purpose of arresting some detailed men (as shoemakers) that have been disturbing the citizens and producing disorganization, and will send them to this place.

He will also order the distillery at springfield to be destroyed, and all others from that place to Bankston. On leaving Bankston you will order the officer commanding the battalion to proceed, in returning by way of Grenada, to destroy all distilleries and arrest all men found absent from their commands without proper authority.

By order of Major-General Forrest:

J. P. STRANGE,

Assistant Adjutant-General.