SAINT LOUIS, MO., August 3, 1864.

Brigadier-General FISK,

Saint Joseph, Mo.:

Please report fully and frequently on the progress of the new regiments. Advise the people that they are essential to the future peace, quiet, and safety of the State. Information reaches me that, while the loyal militia rallied to your call, reported for duty, and obeyed orders, a few lawless organizations have mixed in the crowd, neither reporting to you nor acting under lawful orders. Warn all such that they disgrace the cause they profess to serve; that all who do not report and obey orders from lawful superiors are bushwhacking. Notify all concerned that all property taken must be properly reported and accounted for. Those who kill and take property for private reasons and uses will be treated as murderers and thieves. Publish this and call on the Union men of the country too aid by their influence, information, and authority to prevent any from disgracing them by lawless deeds of blood and plunder.

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Major-General.

SAINT JOSEPH, MO., August 3, 1864.

Major-General ROSECRANS,

Saint Louis:

The recruiting is going on finely. Buchanan County appropriates $120,000 for bounties; other counties will respond liberally. I shall go into many of the counties myself and meet the county courts. The report that reached you concerning lawless and insubordinate organizations responding to my call and going to the field on their own account and refusing to obey my orders is false, wicked, and malicious, a slander upon true men responding to my call. There was but one that came as an independent company; all others reported as Enrolled Missouri Militia. The one refused to do duty under orders from General Craig, and I disarmed them myself and ordered them to their homes. All others received and obeyed the orders of General Craig. I expected there would be some depredations committed in spite of all I could do, but I assure you that when they are all summed up they are not numerous or of magnitude. When loyal men leave their own wasting harvests, march 100 miles with their barefooted farm horses, to seize arms and beat back a band of cut-throats, and find a class of villains, old rebels, sympathizers, and bushwacker-feeders quietly at home securing their crops and in no fear, it makes them feel like stirring up the snakes a little. The only wonder is that I have been able to control them as well as I have. The have done a good service. The demonstration of loyalty and power has ben worth everything to the district. It has convinced the rebels and their recruiting officers and North Missouri to be governed by loyal men and Unionists are to occupy the land.

The class of men who have carried these false reports to your headquarters are to be trusted. I know many of them. It is true a few men have been killed who were not in the brush. They were not killed by the militia, but by their own neighbors, who took advantage of the presence of the militia to avenge their own wrongs and get the blame attached to the militia. I am causing a thorough investigation of these cases and the result wills how that the troops were not at fault. All