was discharged from here June 4, 1863, in accordance with an order of W. H. Lamon, esq., U. S. marshal for the District of Columbia, he having received a pardon for said Varner from the President, dated June 1, 1863.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

AMOS PILLSBURY,

Superintendent.

HEADQUARTERS SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Memphis, Tenn., June 23, 1863.

Colonel W. HOFFMAN,

Commissary-General of Prisoners, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of communication* (herewith returned) of J. Hoey, lieutenant, Company A, Seventeenth Arkansas, C. S. Army, in relation to the killing of Lieutenant-Colonel Woods by Lieutenant Lewis, U. S. Army, and present the following report:

By order of Major General C. S. Hamilton, then temporarily in command of Sixteenth Army Corps, a military commission convened at Memphis, Tenn., of which Colonel Marshall S. Howe, Third U. S. Cavalry, was president; Captain George A. Williams, First U. S. Infantry, judge-advocate, for the trial of Second Lieutenant-Colonel Woods, of the rebel army. Special Orders, Numbers 11, headquarters District of West Tennessee, 7th of February, 1863.

On 24th of February, 1863, the record was received at these headquarters, the sentence being duly recorded: "The prisoner to be dishonorably dismissed the service of the United States and then to be hung by the neck until he is dead, at such time and place as may be ordered by the President of the United States. " Upon the same day the record was duly forwarded to headquarters of department, with the follow with indorsement:

HEADQUARTERS SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Memphis, Tenn., February 24, 1863.

Finding and sentence approved.

Respectfully forwarded.

S. A. HURLBUT,

Major-General.

Upon the same day the following special order was issued:

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Numbers 17.
Memphis, Tenn., February 24, 1863.

I. Second Lieutenant Charles Lewis, U. S. cavalry, having been tried by a military commission and the proceedings forwarded to the President of the United States, will be committed to strict confinement at the Altin prison, Illinois, until the decision of the President shall be made known.

Colonel M. S. Howe, third U. S. Cavalry, will detail a sergeant and three men as a guard to convey the prisoner to Alton.

The department quartermaster will furnish transportation.

* * *

Upon the 26th February Colonel M. S. Howe, third U. S. Cavalry, officially notified these headquarters that Lewis, who had been held in close confinement and ironed in the military prison during his trial and since, had escaped. Whereupon the following notice was extensively

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*See Vol. V., this series, p. 945, for this correspondence and its reference to Hurlbut.

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