and a copy of a letter of instructions to Major-General Hovey, commanding the District of Indiana. I request that you will make use of all the means in your power to assist in breaking up and destroying the bands of guerrillas on the Kentucky side of the river. I have no authority to send a force into your department,nor any force to spare for that service, but sooner than have the feeling of terror and insecurity which now prevails along the border, I shall feel constrained to, if I have to call out ever able-bodied man in the department to do it. I know it is possible to put an end to the depredations of these thieves and robbers, and I shall feel it to be a severe reflection on me if it is not done. I beg you will put and keep everything at work on your side of the river. I inclose these letters to your address, as I have just been informed that the department commander is absent in Washington. If I am in error, please have them forwarded to him.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOS. HOOKER,

Major-General, Commanding.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS NORTHERN DEPARTMENT,
Cincinnati, Ohio, January 12, 1865.

Brevet Major-General HOVEY,

Commanding District of Indiana:

GENERAL; I am directed by the major-general commanding the department to instruct you to dispatch all your available force, if in your judgment it should appear necessary, to exposed points in your district on the Ohio River, for the purpose of protecting our people from the depredations of the gangs of guerrillas infesting the Kentucky side of the river. These guerrillas parties are mounted, and principally live from twelve thirty miles in the interior, from whence they make excursions to the river in such direction and such times as ut their convenience and interest. They steal, fire into steamers, and it is alleged are engaged in smuggling, keeping our people in a constant state of alarm and excitement. As we have no cavalry, it would be fruitless to send into Kentucky to pursue them. On the Kentucky side we have had a comparatively large cavalry force, and the general will call the immediate attention of the officer in command of that department to the necessity of co-operating with our forces in breaking up and destroying these bands, as they are they terror and curse of the good people on both side of the river. With our limited force, the generals is decidedly of the opinion that the true course to pursue to insure our citizens the security and protection they have a right to expect from the Government is to make the river our line of defense, and not to cross into Kentucky. If we cannot restore quiet and security by keeping the river between us, we certainly cannot do it by going in pursuit; but be this as it may, good order must and shall be preserved. The major-general commanding directs that you report, without delay, the disposition you make of your forces to accomplish the desired end.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. H. POTTER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

37 R R-VOL XLV, PT II