the officer in command of the column before he reaches Sparta all information of importance. If it should be considered unsafe to proceed to McMinnville, the trains can turn off at Crossville and move via Pikeville and Sequatchie Valley.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. F. BELTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Richmond, November 10, 1862.

Brigadier General HUMPHREY MARSHALL,

Abingdon, Va.:

GENERAL: This Department is informed that your command has returned to Southwestern Virginia, and a portion of them are encamped in the vicinity of Abingdon. "They turn cattle and horses [such is the information] upon the pastures of the farmers of the country without even asking permission. They take grain and forage wherever they find it, without measuring or weighing it, and fix their own prices upon it. In a country covered with timber, they burn the rails which inclose the farms. General Marshall was visited this morning by a committee of citizens, and asked to interfere and prevent a repetition of such outrages. He replied that he would assist the provost-marshal or commander of the post." This statement is made upon the most respectable authority, and contains matter of too grave a character to be withheld from you. It is, therefore, submitted to you for report.

By order of the Secretary of War:

JOHN A. CAMPBELL,

Assistant Secretary of War.

GENERAL ORDERS,
ADJT. AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Numbers 84.
Richmond, November 10, 1862.

I. The following orders are published for the information and guidance of the army:

II. Whereas reliable information has been received that Colonel

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Lowe and Colonel A. C. Harding, Eighth Illinois Regiment, U. S. Army, have been engaged in a series of wanton cruelties and depredations in Clarksville, Tenn., and the surrounding counties, which in many instances have resulted in the arrest, incarceration, and maltreatment of non-combatants and peaceful citizens of the Confederate States, and, in others, in the unjustifiable destruction of private property, without compensation, and contrary to the rules and practice of civilized warfare; therefore, it is ordered that the aforesaid Colonel

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Lowe and Colonel A. C. Harding, Eighth Illinois Volunteers, U. S. Army, be, and they are hereby, declared no longer entitled to be regarded as soldiers, and that they have forfeited all claim to the benefits of the cartel existing between the Governments of the Confederate States and the United States for the exchange of prisoners of war; and, further, that in the event of their capture, they shall be kept in close confinement, and treated as felons, until otherwise ordered by the President of the Confederate States.

III. And whereas other officers of the United States Army, yet unknown to the Confederate Government, are represented and believed to have participated in the wrongs and outrages before referred to,