also his cousin Dent. On the 21st of September he gave my operative, whom he considered of the right stripe, a letter of introduction to a friend at Pope's Creek, of which the following is a copy:

GEORGETOWN, D. C., September 21, 1861.

J. M. BOWMAN, Esq., Al

DEAR JOE: The bearer of this letter, Mr. William Stephens, came across the river on Monday last and landed at Pope's Creek. Since then he has heard that the Government has sent troops down there, and fearing that Uncle George and the rest of the gentlemen living in that neighborhood may have left, he desires me to write this letter to you and beg that you will if in your power advise him what course to pursue. He has some very important papers with him that he is quite anxious about. If you can help him in any way without endangering yourself in any way you will confer a great favor upon him, for which I am sure he will be truly grateful. He certainly is all right on the question. I do not think myself that the reports he has heard are true. However, as I do not know I cannot advise. Use your own discretion and do all you can.

I remain yours, &c.,

RUDOLPH.

On the 23rd of September one of my operatives learned from a reliable source that Rudolph Watkins took Lieutenant Clarence Derrick, late of the U. S. Army, who resigned for the purpose of joining the Southern army, to his uncle George Dent's, near Port Tobacco, for the purpose of having him conveyed to Virginia. The informant did not recollect the exact date of the act but thought that it was since the battle of Bull Run.

On the night of the 23rd of September a number of my operatives in company with a squad of the provost guard in Georgetown according to your orders proceeded to arrest Rudolph and George S. Watkins at their residence in that city, taking possession of their papers, &c. Among the papers taken possession of at the residence of the Watkinses at the time of their arrest were the following: Letter from Eleanor Dent to George S. Watkins, July 27, 1861. She says her father was perfectly charmed with the news of the defeat of the "Grand Army. " Letter from H. Ashton Ramsay, step-brother of the Watkinses, dated Richmond, Va., June 8, 1861, sent by Harris Forbes who comes back for more recruits. Letter from Rudolph to his father dated at his "Uncle Todd's," June 13, 1861. He states that his uncle George is very busy conveying persons to Virginia, and that it is really astonishing how many cross from Maryland to the other side of the river.

On the 23rd of September, on the developments of the letters of George F. Harbin to Thomas A. Jones (see Nos. 2 and 4) said Harbin was arrested and committed to the Thirteenth Street Prison to await further developments and for the purpose of preventing further treasonable communication in a certain direction.

From the foregoing report it appears that George Dent and Thomas A. Jones, of Maryland, and James and Benjamin R. Grymes, of Virginia, have been actively engaged up to about the 16th of September in forwarding men and contraband goods and correspondence from Maryland into Virginia near Pope's Creek, Dent at least being an authorized agent of the rebel army, and he and the Grymeses probably being still engaged in the same business on the Virginia side of the river; that Rudolph Watkins has been in active co-operation with them here forwarding men and letters to them according to his own admissions to my operatives and others whom he supposed to be secessionists; that George S. Watkins and George F. Harbin have been in correspondence and earnest sympathy if not active co-operation with them, the former inquiring about Maynard rifles here for Dent, &c., and the latter particularly violently denouncing the Federal Government in his letters and invoking the success of the rebel arms, &c. ; and that the evidence in the case of Samuel G. Acton as far as it has been developed