VII. Captain Lewis D. Joy, Eleventh Kansas Volunteers, is appointed assistant provost-marshal for Leavenworth County, Kansas.

By order of Brigadier-General Ewing:

JOHN WILLIAMS,

Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.

LEAVENWORTH, KANS., July 20, 1863.

D. R. ANTHONY,

Mayor, Leavenworth City, Kans.:

DEAR SIR: I am in receipt of your letter of yesterday, and take pleasure in answering inquiry. Leavenworth, which is the center of trade of the Missouri Valley, is from that fact the market for a large part of the stock stolen on the border, and the resort of many of the thieves and robbers infesting. Often when a successful expedition for plunder is made into Missouri or the interior of Kansas, the robbers seek here a place of concealment for themselves and a ready market for their stock, which they could not as surely find in other less populous and flourishing towns of Kansas or Western Missouri.

To arrest and punish by military authority those who commit these depredations in that part of my district in which the civil power is inefficient, is clearly my duty, and also to arrest for such punishment residents of this district who are engaged in committing acts of robbery in the District of Northern Missouri. It is more immediately my duty than that of yourself, or any other civil officer in Kansas, for I may punish for such offenses committed in Missouri, while the civil authorities here cannot, for want of jurisdiction.

In the discharge of this duty, I have employed detectives, with orders to make arrests of thieves and seizures of stolen property in this county. I have been informed, on authority I regard as reliable, that one of these officers was recently ordered by you, as mayor, to turn over to your policemen some horses stolen in Missouri, and seized here by him, including one horse the property of the Government; and on his refusal to do so, you arrested him for breach of the peace, and released him only on condition that he thenceforth should cease to take stolen stock, even though it belonged to the Government, until after the question as to title had been determined by the courts; and that you arrested and fined $20 for vagrancy a man who aided that detective, and who is not a vagrant, when it is well understood that the arrest was solely in punishment for aiding the detective in seizing the stock; and that you gave to another of my detectives orders as to arrests here similar to orders given in the mayor's court, as above stated, and that one of these officers was sued in an action of replevin, by a claimant of the United States horse, above referred to. At the hearing of which action, on the 18th instant, you appeared as counsel for plaintiff, or as amicus curioe, and judgment was rendered for $50 against this officer for executing my orders. I have no personal knowledge of the truth of all or any part of these statements, but am informed that they will be proved, if you wish the proof. But whether these statements be true or not, as to your interference as mayor to interrupt the execution of my orders, I am well satisfied that many of the holders of and dealers in stolen stock in this city have intended to resort to the courts to retake property seized under military orders, and involve in litigation officers seizing it; thus greatly embarrassing, if not preventing, the execution of my orders for such arrests and seizure here.

To enable me to prevent this interference, and not, as you seem to suppose, to preserve the peace of the city, I have declared martial law