ever the recruit or recruits are mustered in. I would ask that all men I may thus raise shall be cavalry and be under the command of Colonel D. S. Terry. I would further ask that I have the power to name all officers under me, and that they shall not be elected.

Trusting that I have in some feeble manner, which may, however, meet with the approval of the War Department, sketched out a plan for the acquisition and securing of a territory which will at no distant day be among the most valuable possessions of the Confederacy,

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

HENRY BEAUMONT.

[Indorsement.]

DECEMBER 6, 1864.

Our resources are fully taxed and our attention so engrossed by nearer and more pressing interests that I must forego enterprise of this distant and contingent character, or leave them to be arranged by the judgment of the commanding general of the Trans-Mississippi Department.

J. A. S.,

Secretary.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Lexington, Mo., October 22, 1864.

Major General STEELE PRICE,

C. S. Army:

GENERAL: Lieutenant Graves, C. S. Army, with forty enlisted men, bearers of flag of truce, arrived here on the 20th instant from escorting Colonel Harding and prisoners captured by you at Glasgow to Boonville. The escort to this flag was clothed in our uniform. I have always adopted as a rule, necessary for my own protection, that soldiers of your army captured in our uniform, should be treated as spies. The necessity of this rule must be obvious to you. I cannot object to your deceive me. I have not interfered with Lieutenant Graves, for he was protected by the flag he carried. I am not unmindful, general, of your humanity and courtesy toward Federal prisoners in times past, but I consider it my duty to express my regret that you permitted this practice, which exposes your men to the rigorous punishment demanded by military prudence as a protection against surprise. Permit me also, general, to express my surprise and regret that you have allowed to associate with your troops bands of Missouri guerrillas, without principle or feeling of nationality, whose record is stained with crimes at which humanity shudders. It is unnecessary to enumerate what these crimes are. The newspapers have not exaggerated. You and I, general, have tried to conduct this war in accordance with the highest dictates of humanity and the laws of war among civilized nations. I hope the future will make no change in this respect.

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

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Major-General, Commanding.