ish subject, and in which the matter is referred to yourself for a report as to his citizenship, &c. I have the honor to report in this case that Craggs claims to be a British subject, and in fact there is no doubt but that he has lived nearly eight years, securely and prosperously under the protection of the United States Government without ever troubling himself to assume allegiance thereto. Of course this is all right, as the Government claims to be a free asylum for the emigration of all lands and to have enough native citizens ever ready to defend its flag and its proteges from assault at home or abroad.

But just before the arrest of Craggs several Federal pickets had been foully murdered in the immediate vicinity of his home near Accotink, Fairfax County, Va. Although the act was generally attributed to a guerrilla band of independent Texas rangers who frequented the neighborhood and it seems claimed the glory of the ignominious achievement, still the citizens were considered too indifferent to say the least to the perpetration of such acts among them, and several of the including Craggs were arrested by order of Brigadier-General Heintzelman, who regarded it as a military necessity that such citizens should be removed from daily intercourse with the rebel pickets. Craggs' own brother-in-law, Matthew Plaskett, also a British subject as he claims, who frequently stayed at Craggs' house, is by his own statement a scapegrace of the most disreputable kind, having voluntarily taken up arms against the benign Government which had welcomed him to its hospitable shores and given him a home beneath its liberal flag.

However, Brigadier General S. Williams, assistant adjutant-general, being satisfied on an examination of the case that Craggs himself was not a particularly dangerous man, and feeling disposed to ameliorate his situation as much as possible compatible with the public safety ordered that a parole of honor be tendered to him with a view to his release, specifying among other things that he should not leave the District of Columbia without permission of the provost-marshal. Craggs refused to execute this parole for the reason as he said that this condition would not allow him to return to his home.

As our gallant military officers would probably not require a man to be kept from his home and his family without good cause I see no alternative but for the Government to accommodate our English cousin with the best quarters and fare in the range of its republican simplicity until the lines of the Federal Army are sufficiently advanced to allow him to return to his Anglo-Virginian home and household without the possibility of detriment to the cause of the Union.

All of which is respectfully submitted by your obedient servant,

E. J. ALLEN.

HDQRS. CITY GUARD PROVOST-MARSHAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, D. C., February 18, 1862.

Brigadier General A. PORTER, Provost-Marshal.

GENERAL: I have had the honor of having laid before me by you a note from the honorable Secretary of State requesting report in the case of J. Barrett Cohen, a prisoners confined in the Old Capitol Building. I beg leave to state that J. Barrett Cohen, together with M. Francis McKee, Moses P. Donaldson and Francis X. Lacross were arrested by the military authorities and committed to the Old Capitol Prison by order of General McClellan, to whom I have already made a report* in their cases

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*Not found.

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