under the circumstances stated and will furnish them to Colonel William Hoffman, the Commissary-General of Prisoners, an investigation can be made with justice to all parties.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ED. R. S. CANBY,

Brigadier-General and Assistant Adjutant-General.

OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF PRISONERS,

Washington, D. C., April 6, 1864.

Colonel J. P. SANDERSON,

Provost-Marshal-General, Saint Louis, Mo.:

Send the officers prisoners of war to Johnson's Island under ample guards with particular instructions. Send the excess of enlisted men to Alton. Furnish rolls of both parties to this office.

W. HOFFMAN,

Commissary-General of Prisoners.

OFFICE COMMISSARY OF PRISONERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,

New Orleans, April 6, 1864.

Colonel W. HOFFMAN,

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

I have the honor to submit herewith rolls of 57 officers, 60 non-commissioned officers, and 336 privates, prisoners of war, forwarded to headquarters Department of the Gulf, on Red River, April 5, 1864, by order of Major-General Banks, for exchange under a cartel made by Major-General Banks and Major-General Taylor.

Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

C. W. KILLBORN,

Colonel and Commissary of Prisoners, Department of the Gulf.

NASHVILLE, TENN., April 6, 1864.

Colonel JOSEPH HOLT, Judge-Advocate-General, Washington:

SIR: I wrote you from Memphis some time ago asking your specific instructions as to the power of a commander of an army in the field to approve and execute the sentence of death. I have not yet time nor the means to examine the question, but the law of Congress approved December 24, 1861, on page 490 of the Volume Military Laws, 1776-1863, gives division and even brigade commanders power to order general courts-martial and to approve and execute sentences, save in cases of death and dismissal of a commissioned officer, which requires the approval of the general commanding the army in the field. I have always constructed that as final, and to substitute the said commander in place of the President of the United States in the cases enumerated in the Sixty-third and Eighty-ninth Articles of the old Articles of War.

The question arises daily, and I expect to execute a good many spies and guerrillas under that law without bothering the President. Too many spies and villains escape us in the time consumed by trial, review, and remission to Washington, and we all know that it is very hard for the President to hang spies, even after conviction, when a troops of friends follow the sentence with earnest and ex parte appeals.