HDQRS. ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, January 20, 1864.

Brigadier General J. D. IMBODEN, Commanding, &c.:

GENERAL: I have been informed that you have in arrest a citizen of Hardy County named Michael Yoakum, who is charged with outrages committed upon the persons and property of some of our citizens of that county, and that you propose trying him before a court-martial. I am also informed that a writ of habeas corpus has been sued out by Yoakum, to which you have made return claiming jurisdiction over the case. You have the power to afford immediate protection to our citizens against threatened or attempted violence, but where an offense has been committed by one not in the military service of the United States or our own you have no jurisdiction to try the offender by a court-martial. You can arrest an deliver him to the civil authorities, who alone are competent to try him. If the facts of this case be such as I have represented them above I desire that you will surrender the accused to the civil authorities, in obedience to the writ, to be disposed of by the court having jurisdiction.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
R. E. LEE,

General.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 31.
Washington, January 21, 1864.

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12. Judge [J. C.] King and Judge Hugh Lennox Bond, of Maryland, appointed commissioners in paragraph 36, Special Orders, Numbers 13, of January 9, 1864, from this office, will also hear and determine the cases of state prisoners who have been confined at Fort McHenry by orders from the general commanding Middle Department; the instructions heretofore given the said commissioners will apply in the present instance. The commanding officers of the Middle Department and of Fort McHenry will give them every facility in prosecuting their duties.

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By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND,
Chattanooga, January 21, 1864.

General JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON,

Commanding Army of Confederate States, Dalton, Ga.:

GENERAL: Learning that you now have at Atlanta fifty wounded Federal soldiers, captured at the battle of Chickamauga, September 19 and 20, 1863, I propose an exchange of these men for a like number of your men (wounded) now in our hands, the exchange to be complete and final and to be effected at any point between the lines of the two armies you may prefer, both parties to be accompanied by full lists.

Very respectfully,

GEORGE H. THOMAS,

Major-General of U. S. Volunteers, Commanding.