your force and live at free quarters. You will held strictly responsible for the literal and exact fulfillment of this order. Any failure will subject you to arrest.

S. A. HURLBUT,

Brigadier-General, U. S. Army.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORTH MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, August 13, 1861.

Brigadier-General HURLBUT, Hudson, Mo.

SIR: Please forward to these headquarters the names of all persons appointed members of safety committees* which you have in your possession.

By order of General Pope:

[SPEED BUTLER,]

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS,

Hudson City, August 13, 1861.

General JOHN POPE, U. S. Army,

Commanding in North Missouri.

GENERAL: I have this day received your communication of 10th instant in relation to John McAfee. In reply I have the honor to report that John McAfee is held by me for the following reasons: He was arrested not by my direct order but by a party dispatched from this camp to break up a band said to be then encamped two miles east of Shelbyville. In this the party failed, the camp having been removed a few hours before their arrival. They returned through Shelbyville and there captured the prisoner McAfee. The party was guided and accompanied by W. R. Strachan, U. S. deputy marshal. Strachan desired McAfee detained until he could take him to Saint Louis. He has been so detained and now remains in custody at Palmyra waiting the all of the deputy marshal. I am personally satisfied that McAfee is a dangerous and subtle enemy; that he commits no act himself but encourages and advises others. I inclose herewith a copy of the letter# to me from J. F. Benjamin, of Shelbyville, admitted by everyone to be a cautious and truthful man. I have offered Mr. McAfee his liberty if he would give his pledge not to resist by force the "Gamble Government. " He refused so to do in presence of Mr. Dryden and others of Palmyra. If a man with his antecedents, delivered to a military officer by the U. S. marshal charged with urging the seizure of the arsenal and with furnishing aid to rebels at present in arms and refusing to pledge himself not to resist the government established by the convention by force deserves any special consideration from the fact of having been speaker of the house of representatives which forced the State into present difficulties by outrageous legislation I have not so considered it. I hold that his position requires more of him than was required of those of less information and have so treated him. I was not aware that it was required of me to report to the general commanding every arrest made or should have done so. If U. S commissioners

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*No reports found giving the names of these committees for any of the localities designated in the original instructions.

#Not found.

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