Bluff, especially if your regiment declines crossing the State line; but, as General Davidson has authority to make such disposition of your force as he may deem best for the protection of his line of communication and supplies during such time as the Cape remains his base, you cannot do otherwise than obey his order. You had better advise the general of the refusal of your command to pass into Arkansas, and suggest to him the propriety of relieving them with the Sixth Missouri and the Thirteenth Illinois.

CLINTON B. FISK,

Brigadier-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE BORDER,
Kansas City, Mo., July 22, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel C. W. MARSH,

Asst. Adjt. General, Dept. of the Missouri, Saint Louis, Mo.:

SIR: I determined, on hearing of the opening of the Mississippi River, and knowing that we would have hereafter no rebel armies of consequence north of Red River, not to issue the order I proposed and submitted, interdicting landing, for purposes of trade, at all except certain named points on the south side of the Missouri and in my district.

One chief reason I had for proposing the order was that a [line] of communication was being kept up between the rebels in Western Arkansas and the towns on the river unoccupied by our forces, by which supplies of medicines, powder, and pistols were obtained and taken south. This reason no longer exists, and I will not, therefore, issue the order.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

THOMAS EWING, JR.,

Brigadier-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE BORDER,
Kansas City, Mo., July 22, 1863.

Lieutenant Colonel C. W. MARSH,

Asst. Adjt. General, Department of the Missouri, Saint Louis:

SIR: Inclosed find copy of order proclaiming martial law in Leavenworth County, and copy of a letter from me to the mayor of Leavenworth stating (very mildly) the circumstances inducing the order. I became perfectly satisfied that I could not get along with the mayor, who was been on "running the machine," as he expressed it, in his own way, and whose interference with my officers was proclaimed as intentional, and with the purpose of controlling arrests and seizures for robbery in Leavenworth. The order is entirely acceptable to a large majority of the people who are attending to honest callings. I will watch the occasion when I may revoke it, but doubt if I can do so until April next, when the present mayor goes out of office.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

THOMAS EWING, JR.,

Brigadier-General.

[Inclosures.]

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DISTRICT OF THE BORDER, Numbers 31.
Kansas City, Mo., July 19, 1863.

* * * * *

VI. Martial law is proclaimed throughout Leavenworth County, Kansas.