Surgeon Westbrook informs me that he dressed the man's wounds a few nights ago, and that there is little or no chance of his recovery. Surgeon Westbrook and Lieutenant W. C. Neill are both just from Fayetteville, and give a deplorable account from that quarter.

Five men were last week found dead tied up to trees, shot through the head. A Drury McMinn, Lieutenant Coudray (of what command I do not know), and two others, whose names were not furnished me, were found in one place, and the fifth one a few miles off, all the work of deserters and tories. I have here a prisoner, one L. Burnett, sent me as a hostage for McMinn. Inclosed you will please find copy of letter which accompanied Burnett. He has sworn out a writ of habeas corpus, and I have been ordered by circuit judge to have him at Fayette Court-House in two weeks from yesterday. Please instruct me at once in his case.

I renew my application for one or two companies of good cavalry.

I am, major, very respectfully,

T. H. BAKER,

Lieutenant Colonel, Chief Provost-Marshal Second District.

[Indorsement.]

OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL,

Demopolis, April 9, 1864.

Respectfully forwarded to Lieutenant Colonel T. M. Jack, assistant adjutant-general, for his information.

J. C. DENIS,

Provost-Marshal-General.

[Inclosure Numbers 1.]

HDQRS. VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT RENDEZVOUS,
Fayetteville, Ala., April 2, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel T. H. BAKER,

Provost-Marshal-General, 2nd Cong. Dist., & c., Tuscaloosa:

SIR: I send to you for safe custody James Mayfield, a citizen of Marion County, Ala., and a deserter from a company (Acres') of Patterson's Alabama regiment cavalry, who was wounded on Thursday night, the 24th ultimo, in an attack which he, together with a party of some 15 other bandits, made upon the house and family of one Mark Russell, a good and loyal citizen of this county, with the purpose of pillaging and robbing, and perhaps murdering him.

As a reason for moving him in his present weak and precarious condition, I need only state that it is known that an effort will be made by his confederates in crime to rescue him from the hands of the authorities and the penalties of the law if he remains here, and we have not sufficient force to prevent their success. Accompanying this I send you a list* of charges preferred against him, all of which can be sustained by ample proof.

I would most earnestly, sir, call your attention to the following report of the state and condition of things in Marion, Walker, and North Fayette Counties: These counties are almost, if not wholly, abandoned by any military force, and are filled up by deserters and disloyal men who are avoiding the service. They have, a large number of them, banded themselves together in a sort of banditti asso-

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* Not found.

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