to whip the enemy but it is not prudent as it is the key to the whole route and it must be the only reliable route for communication and transportation to all the country west from now until next spring.

Begging pardon for this trespass on your time, I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. T. K. HAYWARD.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORTH MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, August 10, 1861.

Brigadier-General HURLBUT:

The commanding general has learned with surprise from the public journals of the arrest and confinement at your headquarters of Speaker McAfee, of the late house of representatives of Missouri. He directs that you report immediately all circumstances connected with this case and your reasons for not having reported the fact to him.

Respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,

[SPEED BUTLER,]

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

SUPERINTENDENT'S OFFICE,

HANNIBAL AND SAINT JOSEPH RAILROAD COMPANY,

Hannibal, Mo., August 12, 1861.

General J. C. FREMONT, Saint Louis.

DEAR SIR: On Saturday General Hurlbut removed McAfee (late speaker of the house of representatives) from Macon to Palmyra. He gave orders to have him tied to the top of the cap on the engine, but was dissuaded from it by our men. Such outrages will make more enemies than thousands of men can quell.

Respectfully,

J. T. K. HAYWARD.

PALMYRA, August 12, 1861.

Colonel R. F. SMITH, Sixteenth Regiment Illinois.

SIR: Your command has been ordered here to punish the people of Marion County for their connivance in the various outrages committed within their limits. You have been instructed to enforce contributions if not made by 9 a. m. to-day. This has been neglected. I now expressly and in plain terms order you if provisions are not delivered to your command by 5 p. m. to detach sufficient force from each company and take such supplies or their equivalent by force, giving to the persons from whom your men may take receipts against the county of Marion. If any further difficulty occurs in rendering provisions and supplies for your command you will daily repeat this compulsory levy. The object is to compel this people to ferret out, seize and deliver to this command the men who have fired on the trains, who have committed outrages on the bridge-tenders and other peaceable citizens. If supplies are regularly furnished you will remain encamped where you are; if not occupy the houses of the most prominent citizens with