COMMISSION RELATING TO STATE PRISONERS,

New York, May 10, 1862.

Lieutenant Colonel MARTIN BURKE, Fort Lafayette, N. Y.

COLONEL: Mr. William T. Sithson having takenthe oath of allegiance to the Government of the United States you may discharge him from confinement.

Very respectfully, yours,

JOHN A. DIX,

EDWARDS PIERREPONT,

Commissioners.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C., May 10, 1862.

Judge EDWARDS PIERREPONT, 103 Fifth Avenue, New York:

Is Smithson to be released on taking oath of allegiance? If so, when?

P. H. WATSON,

Assistant Secretary of War.

NEW YORK, May 12, 1862.

Honorable P. H. WATSON:

Smithson took the oath* and was released on the 10th. I expect to be in Washington Friday, the 16th.

EDWARDS PIERREPONT.

NEW ORLEANS, LA., September 12, 1866.

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

SIR: I see by the papers that a suit has been brought against you by Mr. Smithson, banker, of Washington. Yesterday a person of the highest respectability called onme and said that Smithson attempted in the fall of 1861 to send through the lines a plan of the fortifications of Washington and other information, through Lieutenant Colonel B. B. Boone, a paroled rebel prisoner belonging to a Mississippi rgiment, who declined taking it because it would vioalte his parole, and my informant returned the documents to Mr. Smithson. The papers were inclosed in a small package of tabacco, the center of which was scooped out for the papers and a portion of the end cut off as though used. My informant is personally known to you and will give testimony should it be necessary to satisfy the ends of justice, but shrinks from any publicity being given to her name. She is a Sister of Charity and was connected with the Providence Hospital in Washington. The Sister will go to Washington should her evidence be necessary.

P. H. SHERIDAN,

Major-General.

Cases of Messrs. Ogden, Perkins, Brady and Child.

Colonel J. M. Ogden was arrested by order of Brigadier-General Grant January 1, 1862, at his residence in Weston, Ky., and was delivered

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*This oath cannot be found. Allen's report and a number of other important papers in the Smithson's case are missing from the files. -COMPILER.

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