Inclosed I beg to forward another list* of 376 citizens of the same county, all united to oppose rebellion . Mr. Alfred Holly, their representative, reports that the Union sympathizers in Covington County are organizing armed companies against the rebels; that the greatest excitement prevails all over that it is urgently required to have the amnesty oath administered to those people in order to satisfy and settle their minds. Covington County, Ala., being however beyond the limits of my district, I would respectfully request for instructions relative to the speedy pacification of that section of the country. To All those who come within the limits of the district, the amnesty oath is administered by the provost-marshal at Barrancas, Pensacola, and Milton, respectively in accordance with General Division of West Mississippi.

Very respectfully, colonel, your obedient servant,

A. ASBOTH,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, Washington, May 18, 1865.

Major General GEORGE H. THOMAS,

Commanding Department of the Cumberland, Nashville, Tenn.:

I should be gratified to see you in Washington as soon as convenient for the purpose of conferring with you in relation to civil and military affairs within your command.

ANDREW JOHNSON,

President of the United States.

WASHINGTON, May 18, 1865.

Honorable E. M. STANTON:

I return General Meredith's dispatch+ with my views of the answer that should be given. If the Missouri rebels at Eastport are there on their way to Missouri by agreement between Canby and Taylor, they should by all means be allowed to go. For my part I do not see half the objection to shipped rebels, bound by a solemn oath to observe the laws prevailing where they may be, and to do no act against the Government, going into loyal communities, that I do to retaining in those communities disloyal men, as we are doing, who are bound by no oath, and who have suffered nothing from the war. I think it would be good policy to publish an order authorizing, so far as the General Government is concerned, all paroled prisoners claiming homes in States which never passed the ordinance of secession to get to their claimed homes. If State authorities interfere the military will not interfere with it.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

[MAY 18, 1865,-For Special Orders, Numbers 238, War Department, Adjutant-General's Office, assigning officers to duty as assistant commissioners of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands in certain Southern States, see Vol . XLVI, Part III, p. 1170.]

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*Omitted.

+See 16th, p. 809.

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