from Dranesville in the night to a place near Sandy Landing, and there laid in ambush for a number of U. S. soldiers who had crossed over from the Maryland side of the Potomac whom they fired upon, killing two or more and wounding one, which last was taken by said party to Dranesville, where a glorification was held by them and numerous other secessionists of that place, the company being made jolly with whisky purchased with money taken from the rifled pockets of the murdered soldiers. That these soldiers after thus being killed were robbed of arms and other things about their persons, among the rest a letter from one of their wives, and were also stripped of their clothing, which was afterward given to negro slavmen who thus savagely performed these sacrilegious acts and by said slaves was worn, while the dead and plundered bodies were left unburied on the field to the eaten up, as they were, by the rebels' hogs; meantime the letter being publicly read and the other things shown as relics of their horrid chivalry.

Should it be hereafter claimed by Farr that he was not one of this party of murdering, plundering, savage robbers, and should it turn out that he was not with them on that particular occasion, if would by no means relieve him from the well-sustained charge of most outrageous and active participation in systematic and long-continued persecution of men and their families, driving them from the soil which they owned in the State of Virginia and committing their hard earned property to devouring flames or rebel confiscation. It does not and will not relieve the said Farr from his acts asa member of that self-constituted committee in whose secret conclaves were made edicts against such men in Fairfax County as were guilty only of the crime of being friendly to the American Union, destroying their property, breaking up their homes and families, driving them from the State, and finally culminating in August last in scenes of fiendish barbarity, no matter by whom executed, scarcely paralleled in the civilized world,-Union soldiers shot down by these men in ambush, their pockets rifled of precious mementoes, their bodies stripped to furnish clothing for their negro slaves, and left unburied to be eaten up by hogs, while the money taken from them was made to contribute intoxicated madness to their bitter hate of the Union, and thus fit and prepare them for that Dranesville carnival of bestial joy over their brutal accomplishment of savage barbarity.

What cares such a man for an oath of allegiance, even if proof were not furnished (as it is) by the testimony on file that several of these same men who were arrested with Farr had said at different times that no such oath possessed a shadow of sacredness in their estimation? I am unable, general, to find in the case of Farr any extenuating circumstances attending his course, not even the poor and unsatisfactory excuse of a rebel soldier volunteering in the service and then acting under orders. Farr was a citizen, not called to take up arms by civil or military authority, but was animated alone by his own brutal instincts, to gratify which he marked out voluntarily his own pathway of cruelty and crime, continuing to follow it until arrested by the strong arm of military power.

I therefore respectfully suggest that said John B. Farr be not released from custody, but that he be held until a military court can afford him trial for his manifold crimes.

All of which, general, is most respectfully submitted by

Your obedient servant,

E. J. ALLEN.