Relying upon your disposition to co-operate with me in averting the necessity for a resort to such measures,

I am, general, respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. L. STEVENSON,

Major-General, Commanding.

[Inclosure.]

NOTICE.

Persons taken in the act of firing on unarmed vessels from the bank will be treated as highwaymen and assassins and no quarter will be shown them.

Persons strongly suspected of firing on unarmed vessels will not receive the usual treatment of prisoners of war but will be kept in close confinement.

If this savage and barbarous Confederate custom cannot be put a stop to we will try what virtue there is in hanging.

All persons no matter who they are who are caught in the act of pillaging the houses of the inhabitants along the river, levying contributions or burning cotton will receive no quarters if caught in the act, or if it is proved upon them

By order of--

DAVID D. PORTER,

Acting Rear-Admiral, Commanding Mississippi Squadron.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., February 24, 1863.

Major General S. R. CURTIS,

Commanding Department of the Missouri, Saint Louis, Mo.

GENERAL: I have the honor to return herewith the descriptive list of rebel prisoners paroled at Des Arc, Ark., for further information. Colonel Ludlow, agent for exchange of prisoners, returns similar papers* to me with the following comment:

I cannot use these papers in effecting exchanges until it is shown or known what has become of the paroled men, or whether after being paroled they were sent through the lines.

May I request that you will order this information to be furnished in all cases? Orders heretofore issued by the War Department require that rolls of prisoners captured shall give the rank, regiment and company and the time and place of capture. To effect exchanges it is necessary to be known in addition the time and place of delivery to the rebel authorities.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. HOFFMAN,

Colonel Third Infantry, Commissary-General of Prisoners.

[Indorsement.]

OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL,

Saint Louis, March 4, 1863.

Respectfully forwarded to the commanding officer at Helena, Ark., with a request that these papers be returned with the information needed by Colonel Hoffman. This as expeditiously as possible.

F. A. DICK,

Lieutenant Colonel and Provost-Marshal-General, Dept. of the Missouri.

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*See Ludlow to Hoffman, February 18, p. 282.

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