and I beg that you will direct Captain Prime to be sent here. Captain Drew will be exchanged for one of the captains now on their way here from Fort Warren.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJ. HUGER,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS FORTY-FIFTH VIRGINIA REGIMENT,
Mercer County, Va., February 17, 1862.

General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

GENERAL: Your attention is called to the fact that in Raleigh, Fayette and the neighborhing counties the U. S. forces are carrying off citizens in large numbers as prisoners of war; not only those who sympathize with and are loyal to the Confederacy but also many of the Union men.

I am of the opinion that these men are taken prisoners with a view to their being exchanged for their prisoners of war now in the custody of the Confederate Government. This opinion is strengthened by the late action of the Federal Government in seeking an exchange of prisoners in greater numbers than heretofore.

I deem this subject of sufficient importance to call your attention to the mater in order to guard the Confederate Government from having the men thus taking imposed on them in exchange for prisoners of war taken in arms against the Confederacy.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. E. PETERS,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding Forty-fifth Virginia Regiment.

PROCLAMATION.

Whereas the Congress of the Confederate States has by law vested in the President the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in cities in danger of attack by the enemy:

Now therefore I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States af America, do hereby proclaim that martial law is extended over the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth and the surrounding country to the distance of ten miles from said cities, and all civil jurisdiction and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus are hereby declared to be suspended within the limits aforesaid.

This proclamation will remain in force until otherwise ordered.

In faith whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal at the city of Richmond on this 27th day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., March 5, 1862.

Major General B. HUGER, Norfolk, Va.

SIR: Martial law having been declared in Norfolk under the President's proclamation he desires me to call your attention to the varous measures which he hopes will at once be vigorously executed:

First. Some leading and reliable citizen to be appointed provost-marshal in Norfolk and another in Portsmouth. In the fomrer city he suggests the mayor, said to be a zealous friend of our cause.

Second. All arms to be required to be given up by the citizens; private arms to be paid for.