and many troops were passing through that place who seemed to be moving southward. I have no report of suspicious or dangerous characters to make this month.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHAS. M. KNOX,

Captain and Provost-Marshal.

WASHINGTON, April 30, 1865.

Major-General DODGE:

General Grant has countermanded his order to build Iron Mountain Railroad bridges, and the work will not be done by Government.

D. C. McCALLUM.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, Mo., April 30, 1865.

Captain JOSEPH McC. BELL,

Asst. Adjt. General, Military Division of the Missouri:

CAPTAIN: In accordance with instructions received from the major-general commanding, I sent my aide, Captain Jonas, to Lexington to investigate the complaints of A. Comingo, B. K. Davis, and W. B. McFarland. He could find nothing to justify the charges. The district is more quiet now that it has been for a long time, and the Union men say it is better commanded. They think the military authorities justified in every arrest they have made. There were in prison at Lexington five men and three women, the men under proper charges. The women were the wife, mother, and daughter of a notorious bushwhacker who had participated in feeding and aiding bands of outlaws. He says there is a bitter quarrel up there between the two factions; both desire to use the military for their own purposes. The arrests made in that section were by Colonel Harding's order, with the exception of two, one a notorious bushwhacker and the other a noted rebel. The latter is the only person who has been arrested for carrying arms. It was done through ignorance of order lately issued, and as soon as the provost-marshal learned his error he rectified it. The order allowing arms to be carried was published in all newspapers, and persons desiring to have them were buying freely and openly. The preached McFarland has the reputation of being a strong rebel. Major Davis closed his church because he refused to pray for the President and paid no attention to Governor Fletcher's order, although notified of it. The possession of the church was in dispute at the time, two sets of trustees claiming it, one loyal and the other, with whom McFarland was connected, disloyal. Upon the receipt of my order it was given up. Major Davis had already been reprimanded by Colonel Harding for his action in the matter. The Mr. Comingo, who is provost-marshal, and wrote the letter to Colonel Broadheard making complaints of district provost-marshal, is said by all loyal men to be decidedly more favorable to rebels than to loyal men. At least he has always interested himself in the worst class of persons who have been arrested in that section. No facts could be obtained from parties making complaints as to arrests, but they promised to get affidavits and send them down. One of the parties brought before the captain, as a specimen of the oppression and tyranny practiced, was known by loyal men to have not only aided bushwhackers, but to have harbored them; and, indeed, some were