to general orders and instructions from the commanding general of the Department of East Tennessee said petitioners were committed to the military prison at Knoxville to await such further disposition as the Confederate authorities might make in the premises. Afterwards, to wit, on the 12th instant Michael Malone, one of said petitioners, was released from custody upon my application and permitted to return home, and a few days since after the service of the writ upon me petitioners Stephen McKee and Jonathan Summit were arrested and taken out of the custody of the military authorities by the C. S. marshal for the District of East Tennessee upon a warrant for treason issued by Confederate Commissioner Elliott. Consequently none of said petitioners are in my custody or under my control or the control of the military authorities, but are in the custody and under the control of the civil officers of the Confederate Government, and for this reason I have no power or authority to have the bodies of petitioners before your honor at Sweet Water Depot on the 23rd instant as directed and required by your honor's writ.

Now, having made full answer and return of my doings in the premises I pray to he hence dismissed.

JOHN E. TOOLE,

Colonel and Provost-Marshal Department of East Tennessee.

HEADQUARTERS IN THE FIELD,
Okolona, Miss., May 22, 1863.

Major R. W. MEMMINGER, Assistant Adjutant-General.

SIR: I have the honor to report for the information of the lieutenant-general commanding the department that on the 20th instant some forty persons, citizens of Missouri, reached the vicinity of Pontotoc under Federal military escort, exiled from their homes by the mandates from the Federal Government. The circumstances were such that it seemed to be incumbent upon me to receive them, especially as a large proportion of them are ladies and children driven to the alternative of exile from their homes, coming within our military lines or imprisonment at the North. This act of hospitality to our citizens who have become victims of political oppression after having fallen under the enemy's power seems due alike from motives of humanity and public courtesy.

A complete copy of the Federal orders and other papers accompanying these exiles is herewith* communicated for the information of the honorable Secretary of War. It will be seen that the Federal system of espionage, their orders of arrest, their despotic mandates of exile in the cases of delicate ladies and innocent children, their seizure of property of the wealthy exiles, their instigation of servile war, combined with the general and unrestrained license to plunder, rob and destroy which marks the movements of their military forces indicate the speedy inauguration of a reign of terror unparalleled in the history of civilized races of men. It is also to be observed that this Federal system of exile is designed to strike terror among loyal citizens in all border communities and to paralyze their actions and sympathies as well as to throw upon us on any pretense their spies, their outlaws and degraded classes at all times and for most unjustifiable causes.

The Federal authorities have prohibited exiles from bringing with them over $200 to each single person and $1,000 to each family, and

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* Not found.

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