squad of soldiers, and set them at work under the supervision of Lieutenant Colonel D. F. Tiedemann, who is charged with the laying out of the work and of the superintending of the construction of the fort. Subsistence for the citizens thus called into service will be issued by the commissary of subsistence at Cape Girardeau, on provision returns properly approved by the commanding officer, but no other compensation will be allowed by the Government for such service. Soldiers will also assist in the work. The necessary teams, tools, &c., will be supplied by the assistant quartermaster at Cape Girardeau.

* * * * * *

By order of Brigadier-General Ewing:

H. HANNAHS,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

MACON, MO., February 1, 1865--3 p. m.

Major J. W. BARNES,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

Captain Clayton Tiffin, of Ray County Enrolled Missouri Militia, reports that his company, on the 30th ultimo, pursued a gang of guerrillas from Ray County across the Missouri River into La Fayette County. They killed Hurleston, the leader of the gang, and two men, Fiske and Wright; all three noted guerrillas. At last accounts the company was close upon the remainder of the band, about twenty-five men, with a fair show for wiping them out.

W. T. CLARKE,

Lieutenant and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHWEST MISSOURI,
Springfield, Mo., February 1, 1865.

Mrs. SARAH M. SCOTT,

Sarcoxie, Mo.:

DEAR MADAM: Your communication of the 27th ultimo came duly to hand. I write a few lines in reply, partly because you requested it and partly to correct the erroneous idea you seem to entertain in regard to the motives that led to the promulgation of the order to which you refer. I have nothing to say of the motives which actuated others, but I know that in al that I do in my official capacity I am actuated only by a desire to promote the true interests of security and the general welfare of the people. How strange it is that the simple fact of women and children being compelled to seek a new place of residence at a season of the year not usually inclement in this latitude, strikes your mind with horror, while the spectacle of honest, peaceable men laboring in their fields for the support of their wives and little children shot down like dogs by men whom these families you refer to are harboring and feeding, does not even call for a sympathizing word or even a remark. You take a strange view of the requirements of charity, and seem to conclude that charity requires an officer to stand still with folded arms and see murderers and their accessories turn whole communities of happy families into widows and orphans and cover the earth with the innocent slain, because the remedy will occasion some inconvenience and perhaps suffering of the parties in a manner guilty. Charity itself calls for the execution