paid to the individual. And in case of the failure of the county officers to collect said taxes within nine months from the date of the finding, the district commander shall have the right to select the property of any one in the county who has borne arms against the Union, or any one who has been a rebel sympathizer, or any family who has had a male member (father or son) in the rebel service, or any one who has harbored, fed, or in any way encouraged, after the issuing of this order, any Confederate soldier, bushwhacker, marauder, or thief within the lines occupied by our military forces, and sell the same to pay or assist to pay the debt, at the same time turning over to said party or parties paying the claims against the county; which shall be a true and just debt against said county and a lien against the real estate in the hands of the party or parties paying, to be collected as all other claims against a county can be collected.

The amounts of indebtedness so found against the various counties shall remain debts till collected during the existence of martial law; and an application will be made to the next Congress to confirm any such debts not paid after martial law shall cease against each and every county till the same is paid.

I do not pretend to say there are no objections to some of the features of such an order, but I think it will have the tendency to spur up both Union men and rebel sympathizers to stop these wholesale butcheries and robberies which are now going on, and in which the power of the Government is in truth set at defiance from circumstances.

I think the publication of such an order would do good if some of its provisions were not fully carried out, as it would al least furnish a record of the loss of life and property of which now no official notice is taken, and the faithful carrying out of which would essentially stop these practices.

Please acknowledge the receipt of this communication.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

THOS A. DAVIES,

Brigadier-General.

[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF KANSAS,
Fort Leavenworth, July 18, 1864.

Respectfully forwarded.

The right to assess rebels cannot be doubted, but the manner of doing involves more study and legal consideration than I am able to give it.

S. R. CURTIS,

Major-General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DISTRICT OF NORTH KANSAS, Numbers 59.
Fort Leavenworth, July 11, 1864.

Colonel Goodwin will immediately see that every soldier at this post is furnished with a haversack and canteen and be held in readiness to march at a moment's warning. Sufficient transportation will be provided for the One hundred and thirty-eighth Illinois Volunteers. All of the Sixteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry which can be mounted will be so mounted at once and placed in line for inspection, and that