HEADQUARTERS MOUNTAIN DEPARTMENT,
Wheeling, Va., April 7, 1862.

Honorable E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

SIR: I have the honor to report that on the 4th day of April I ordered the arrest of a man calling himself Alfred Beckley and representing that he has been a brigadier-general in the Confederate service and bearing arms against the Union. It is represented that he has recently returned to his home in Weston, Va., with the determination to remain there quietly and not again to join his command in the Confederate Army. He has been arrested and I will cause him to be committed to the military prison at Camp Chase, there to remain in custody to await the orders of the War Department. I have to add that there is a strong feeling of opposition among the citizens of Western Virginia to the return among them of men like this man Beckley who left their homes to join in this rebellion. They represent that their presence is attended with mischievous consequences to the peace of the neighborhood, and that the most of them engage as soon as they return in forming guerrilla parties to destroy and otherwise injure the property of Union men and murder and likewise inflict injury upon their persons. I find this feeling far more widespread and serious than I was led to suppose it was when I took command of this department.

I have taken these steps at the instance and with the sanction of the Governor who gave me much of the information on which I have acted. I have also directed to be arrested and committed to Camp Chase Robert W. Clarkson, J. W. D. Clarkson and Alex. T. Laidly, who have refused to take the oath of allegiance and who are seeking to get through our lines into the enemy's lines.

Awaiting your orders, I am, respectfully,

J. C. FREMONT,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA,
Fort Monroe, Va., April 7, 1862.

Major General B. HUGER, Commanding at Norfolk, Va.

GENERAL: I send herewith by flag of truce Colonel Robert F. Baldwin, Twenty-first Virginia Regiment [Thirty-first Militia]; Major W. N. Brown, Twentieth Mississippi Regiment, and Major E. W. McAlexander, Twenty-seventh Alabama Regiment, who are permitted to go South on parole for fifteen days at the expiration of which time they will return to Fort Monroe unless in the interim Colonel William R. Lee, Major P. J. Revere and Dr. E. H. R. Revere, of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteers, now on parole in the North, shall be released from their parole, in which event the officers sent herewith will consider themselves released from their parole. I desire to be informed whether Major D. H. Vinton, U. S. Army, is released from his parole.

Referring to yor communication of the 4th I perceive that it is intimated that all exchange obligations have not been fulfield. I have no desire to detain any officer when a Federal officer of like rank may be sent North. If you will send me a tabular statement of all exchanges that have been effected between ourselves and of all exchanges now pending I will at once rectify any error. Will you please notify me at your earliest convenience whether Colonel Lee, Major