of any order from General Ammen (who was then commanding

post) for an examination of prisoners. I but assumed command of Camp Douglas after the departure of Colonel Cameron with this regiment on the morning of the 19th of April, 1863.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN C. PHILLIPS,

Captain, Commissary Post.

Per W. C. G. L. STEVENSON,

Lieutenant Post Adjutant.

[MAY 3, 1863. - For records relating to "Steight's Raid" and the capture of his command by the Confederate near Cedar Bluff, Ala., see Series I, Vol. XXIII, Part I, p. 280 et seq. Also see Part II, same volume, for correspondence relating to Streigh's operations, beginning at p. 224.]

HEADQUARTERS CONFEDERATE FORCES,
Jackson County, Mo., May 3, 1863.

Major General S. R. CURTIS,

Commanding U. S. Forces, Saint Louis, Mo.

SIR: Having been ordered to this section of the State by the legitimate authorities of my Government to resist any and all invading forces that may have for their object the subjugation of our people I deem it proper to address you officially of the intention of my Government and the determination of the colonel commanding in the event that the unholy, savage and inhuman war carried on against the people of Cass, Jackson, La Fayette, Bates and Johnson Counties is still persisted in.

Sir, while your soldiers have been treated as ordinary prisoners of war and the Union people respected in person and effect our soldiers and citizens have been arrested and executed without trial, basing and resting those hellish and diabolical acts upon the testimony of one or two unscrupulous dogs - villains that are sworn to sell and barter away the lives and liberty of men. Your officers in command of regiments, battalions and companies stationed in our border counties have without warrant or justification arrested and shot private citizens, charging as a pretext to that cowardly act that they fed, harbored and gave encouragement to bushwhackers, thereby covering the atrocity of the crime.

The more brutal the act stronger the praise awarded by your Government. Your officers with or without your [consent] have arrested and banished our ladies for vindicating the sacredness of their sex against the slanders and insults of the base and unmitigated scoundrels calling themselves U. S. soldiers. Yes; some have been thus dealt with for refusing to cook, and giving expression to the detestation and abhorrence so justly engendered and borne toward these hireling vandals. What, sir, can you except from a people whose rights are trampled in the dust, whose property is taken ruthlessly without the least shadow of law and feloniously appropriated; whose families have been outraged and subjected to indignities unbecoming the savages; whose friends and kindred have been shot for opposing the unwarrantable and unconstitutional invasion of our rights and country? All this