DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, September 21, 1861.

Major General JOHN A. DIX, Fort McHenry, Baltimore:

Ross Winans may be discharged by renewing his parole which he gave on his former arrest.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA,
Baltimore, Md., September 22, 1861.

Major General JOHN E. WOOL, Commanding Department of Virginia.

GENERAL: I have received a dispatch from Honorable William H. Seward, Secretary of State, in the following words:

Ross Winans may be discharged upon renewing the parole which he gave on his former arrest.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State.

I have the honor to inclose herein the parole* referred to transcribed from a copy at these headquarters and prepared for his signature. Should you think proper to send the parole when executed direct to the Secretary of State will you please send me a certified copy to be placed on file at these headquarters. Or if you will forward me the original I will forward it to the Department of State after taking a certified copy here.

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

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA,
Baltimore, Md., September 23, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

SIR: I inclose a copy of a dispatch received on Saturday night. As the Baltimore had received orders to said I did not telegraph it to you as I should otherwise have done.

I know nothing of the two gentlemen first named in it (Messrs. Claggett and Salmon) except that they are members of the House of Delegates from Frederick County and decided secessionists.

Mr. Landing is a member from Worcester County on the eastern shore of Maryland bordering on Accomac County, Va. He is represented to me as a man of no great consequence and it was reported to me that he came to Fort McHenry on the day of his arrest "pretty drunk. "

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General, Commanding.

[Inclosure.]

ANNAPOLIS, September 21, 1861.

General DIX, Eutaw House.

We are willing to take the oath taken by Dennis. Can we be discharged?

T. J. CLAGGETT,

W. E. SALMON,

G. W. LANDING.

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* See p. 689. For record of Winans' first arrest and discharge see pp. 571-572. For resolutions of the Maryland legislature concerning his first arrest, see p. 587.

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