being unconditional we consider it due to ourselves as well as just to him that we should make the above earnest request.

Trusting that this request will meet the approval of the Department we are, most respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. M. SHAW,

Colonel Eighth North Carolina Troops.

F. P. ANDERSON,

Lieutenant-Colonel Fifty-ninth Regiment Virginia Volunteers.

J. V. JORDAN,

Colonel Thirty-first Regiment North Carolina Troops.

W. J. GREEN,

Lieutenant-Colonel Second North Carolina Battalion.

U. S. MARSHAL'S OFFICE, Springfield, Ill., January 2, 1862.

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

SIR: In obedience to your order of the 20th ultimo communicated by telegraph I conveyed to Fort Lafayette, New York Harbor, Christopher Ledwidge and S. R. Burnett, and formally delivered them into the custody of Lieutenant Colonel M. Burke, commanding on the 29th ultimo. * * * The expenses of transportation for the prisoners, guards and myself are submitted herewith also. *

I am, most respectfully, your obedient servant,

D. L. PHILLIPS,

U. S. Marshal.

HEADQUARTERS HOOKER'S DIVISION, Camp Baker, Lower Potomac, Md., January 6, 1862.

Brigadier General S. WILLIAMS,
Adjutant-General, Army of the Potomac.

GENERAL: Two prisoners were sent in to me to-day from Allen's Fresh. They are J. Barrett Cohen and M. Francis McKee. The circumstances of these arrests will be found in the report of First Lieutenant B. Q. A. Gresham, Third Indiana Cavalry, dated the 5th instant, and herewith inclosed. + On examination of them separately I find many discrepancies, but as I have no direct means of establishing their identity I have deemed it advisable to have them forwarded to Washington. My first impression was that they were from Virginia, as a small party crossed the river on Wednesday night last near Allen's Fresh. My opinion was that they were of them. They could give me no satisfactory reason for their visit this district, but both agreed that they left Baltimore by a schooner a week ago last Friday, though neither of them remembered her name nor did they tell me what she was freighted with. They tell me that they landed at Drum Point, near the Patuxent. I regard them with suspicion. By referring to the letters forwarded to you in one of the trunks to-day I think the name of the former frequently appears.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOSEPH HOOKER,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Division.

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*Not found.

+Omitted.

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