division, or 75 to a corps. They must be sent in charge of a commissioned officer, under the regulations prescribed in Paragraph III.

X. The following paragraph, Paragraph II, of General Orders, Numbers 78. from the War Department,of July 14, 1862, is republished for the information of all commanders of posts in this department. They will immediately take measures for carrying out its humane provisions. Instead of establishing separate camps for them, where their number is small, quarters may be set apart for them in the convalescent camp, under the command of an officer specially assigned to that duty.

II. At large camps, depots, or posts, where arrive en route to their companies, the commanding officer will immediately set apart a place where the men may be quartered, in buildings, tents, or huts, as soon as they arrive, and may, without delay, receive food and clothing. Parties will be detailed to await at landing places the arrival of such soldiers,and to direct them to their quarters. They will be assigned immediately to temporary companies, composed, as far as possible, of men from the same regiments or brigades ; and each of these companies will be forwarded in a body to the command to which they belong, according to directions contained in Paragraph I,of General Orders, Numbers 72

XI. Discharged and disabled soldiers, returning home, are included in the above directions, and will be similarly received, taken care of, and forwarded on their way.

By command of Major-General Rosecrans:

J. P. GARESCHE,

Assistant Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff.

HDQRS. SECOND DIVISION, ARMY OF KENTUCKY,
Near Lexington, Ky., December 11, 1862

Major-General GORDON GRANGER,

Commanding Army of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky.:

SIR: ; I have never, until now, felt disposed to take notice of attacks in the public press upon my official conduct. My course in regard to contrabands, which no dispassionate man can regard otherwise than as mild, just to the soldier, eminently politic and strictly in conformity to law and order, as well as custom, and which has not only received your reiterated verbal approval, but is simply the enforcement of your positive orders on the subject,has been made the object of the most infamous misrepresentation and abuse, which have culminated, I am informed, in unscrupulous efforts to injure me with the authorities at Washington. The volumes of falsehood contained in the newspaper articles which I inclose* are relieved only by a very few stinted grains of truth. The charges against me of "nigger-catching," and of returning slaves to their owners or agents, have not the slightest foundation in fact,as the writers must, or might, have known at the time. I have never, that I know of, by any order of mine, hindered any slave of his liberty in any way, shape, or form, and do not remember to have ordered but one to be sent beyond the lines. I have advocated and recommended no resistance to the civil authorities in the exercise of their legitimate functions within the loyal State of Kentucky, for the reason that martial law except in its limited application in arresting disloyal persons, does not exist here.

The object of my "contraband order," herewith inclosed, is shown upon its face. It was to avoid any further accession of that class of persons, male or female, and to provide suitable employment, under proper restraint, for those "now within the lines or that may hereafter, in any

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*Not found.

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