oners of war. I have replied that he ought not. I suppose this answer accompanied by my reasons renders any report to you unnecessary.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS, Baltimore, February 20, 1862.

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

SIR: Your letter of the 17th instant asking whether Colonel Thomas alias Zarvona alias the French lady ought to be transferred to the list of prisoners of war is received. I think not. He went in the disguise of a woman on board the steamer Saint Nicholas, running as a passenger vessel between this city and the Potomac, and with the assistance of a number of other persons disguised as mechanics seized the vessel and carried her into Virginia as a prize. He afterward returned to Maryland with a commission as colonel in the service of Virginia and was detected and arrested on the Patuxent River in this State. These transactions took place before I was placed in command here.

It was understand that he was confined on the charge of piracy but he was indicted for treason only. I inclose a copy of the indictment. Major-General Banks never recognized these proceedings. In a letter to the General-in-Chief of the 13th of July he designates the crime of Zarvona as "piracy of the worst form. " It appears to me that he should have been treated as a pirate and a spy and that he ought not to be classed with persons captured in open warfare. This course was not taken with him.

He was not indicted for piracy and he has been held under arrest like other prisoners of state. Still I see no propriety in transferring him to the list of prisoners of war.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General.

[Inclosure.]

In the district court of the United States of America in and for the Maryland district.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Maryland District, to wit:

The jurors of the United States of America in and for the body of the Maryland district do on their oath and affirmation present that Richard Thomas, late of the district aforesaid, gentlemen, being an inhabitant of and resident within the United States of America and under the protection of the laws of the United States of America and owing allegiance and fidelity to the United States of America, not weighting the duty of his said allegiance but wiskedly devising and intending the peace and tranquility of the United States of America to disturb and to sir, move, excite, levy and carry on war, insurrection and rebellion against the United States of America on the 28th day of June, in the year of your Lord 1861, at the district aforesaid and within the jurisdiction of this court and of the circuit court of the United States for the fourth circuit in and for the Maryland district, unlawfully, maliciously and traitorously with force and arms did compass, imagine and intend to raise and levy war, insurrection and rebellion against the United States of America; and in order to fulfil and bring to effect the said traitorous composigns, imaginations and