for fifty officers of rank, Federal prisoners, to be sent to him at Charleston for special use in Charleston during the siege. The President approves the application, and you are desired to select [from] among them as far as practicable such as have served near Charleston and send the number without delay to General Jones under a suitable guard.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF TEXAS, &C., Houston, June 9, 1864.

Colonel A. C. JONES, Chief of Staff:

COLONEL: I herewith return the papers relating to the political prisoners Peebles, Baldwin, and Hillebrand, with the remarks that their case has been the subject of conversation between Captain cone and myself, and we concurred in the opinion that they should be sent without our lines. As long as they remain in custody their presence will be a constant source of irritation, while they may at any time effect their escape, or be released upon the repeal of the law suspending the writ of habes corpus. If permitted to remain in the country they would be dangerous men. If sent without our lines they can do no more harm than Hamilton, Davis, and others, as they posses no information which would be of value to the enemy, or which could not be obtained from other sources.

Upon the evidence which has been developed against them these men cannot be convicted before the civil courts. But the moral evidences of their guilt are so strong that all good men would concur in the propriety of sending them without our lines.

Respectfully,
JOHN SAYLES,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Inclosure No. 1.]

HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT, Shreveport, La., June 5, 1864.

Major General J. B. MAGRUDER, Commanding District of Texas:

GENERAL: I have the honor to inclose to you two communications forwarded by Governor Murray in relation to the case of Peebles and Hillebrand. These are referred to you by the direction of the commanding general in order that such action as is necessary may be taken on the subject.

The act providing for the temporary suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus expires shortly by the terms of its own limitation. It may be repealed even before that time by Congress. These men in that event would be discharged and either suffer violence at the hands of a mob or under the protection of the law which had screened them from punishment hatch new treason.

Under the circumstances he desire you to examine into the cases of those who are confined. Peebles, Baldwin, Hillebrand, and others, and such as these, would no evil result to us from their going to the enemy send them at once to the blockading fleet or across the Rio Grande.

Such as it would not be safe to send beyond our lines report them to him and he will make arrangements for sending them to the Indian