FORT LAFAYETTE, New York Harbor, October 22, 1861.

Lieutenant Colonel M. BURKE,

Commanding Forts Hamilton and Lafayette.

COLONEL: I respectfully ask that James M. Haig, prisoner confined at this post, be removed from here immediately as he is a perfect maniac, and if he remains here will do himself some damage. He was so violent last night that I was obliged to place him in stiff irons.

I am, colonel, with resepct, your obedient servant,

CHAS. O. WOOD,

Second Lieutenant, Ninth Infantry, COmmanding Post.

[Indorsement.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, November 1, 1861.

Let him be discharged.

SIMO CAMERON.

NEW YORK, October 25, 1861.

Honorable WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State:

James M. Haig, a prisoner confined in Fort Lafayette, is deranged; in double irons. Shall I send him to the lunatic asylum at Blackwell's Island!

ROBT. MURRAY,

U. S. Marshal.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 26, 1861.

ROBERT MURRAY, Esq., U. S. Marshal, New York.

SIR: You will please erelease James M. Haig and deliver him to his friends at New York or Baltimore. If they are not prepared to receive him convey him to the luntic asylum at Blackwell's Island. Let his treatment be as kind as p[ossible consistent with his safety.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

BALTIMORE, October 29, 1861.

Honorable W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington.

DEAR SIR: I notice a paragraph in the morning prints of this city tothe effect that a certainJames M. Haig, who was arrested some time since and placed in Fort Lafayette on the charge of treason to our Government, had become a raving maniac and his release from confinement directed by your orders. I beg that you willpardon me for annoying you about this matter when I am so well aware that you are already overtaxed with business and I trust yuou will not deem it impertinent in me in addressing you. My only object is to gaurd the Govenrmetn against deception.

This man Haig is by birth an Englshman but for he past thirty years or thereabouts has been a resident of this city, and is one of the most consummate rascals that ever walked the streets of our city, ready and willing at all times to do anything for money. There is no scheme of villainy but that he is ready to join in and lend a willing hand for gain, and he has been remrkably successful in managing to evade the cluthces of the law in all his nefarious operations. He is a scheming,