D.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF CAIRO, Cairo, Ill., March 8, 1864.

Major General W. S. ROSECRANS,
Commanding Department of the Missouri:

GENERAL: Inclosed I send you some papers in relation to an organization which it is said supersedes the Knights of the Golden Circle, and whose members are sworn to use their efforts to get up a rebellion in the Northwest.

The revelations in relation to this matter are made by a man who calls himself Dr. Edward Everett, probably an assumed name, and he is probably a great rascal and not very communicative, but says he got into the matter by having married a Southern wife whose friends belonged to the organization. He was probably frightened into making the revelation from the fact that he had committed himself to one of our detectives and feared and arrest, and concluded to make a clean breast of it. He promises to report to you, and I will give him a letter to you and you may be able to gain further information from him. There seems to be no doubt but that there is a regular line from Saint Louis to Price's army carrying rebel mail and contraband goods. I sent a man to Saint Louis with the doctor to be initiated, who confirms most of what he says but did not succeed in being initiated on account of their getting alarmed from some cause.

Yours, truly,

H. T. REID,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

[Inclosure.]

CAIRO, ILL., February 18, 1864.

The organization is designated as the Order of American Knights, the initials, of which are written thus - O. A. K.

The design is armed resistance to the Federal Government in the North, and lodges, or "temples," as they are called, are in existence in the States of New York, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio.

Among others, there are two numbering eighty members each near Kirkwood Station, on the Pacific Railroad, about fourteen miles from Saint Louis, Mo.

It is understood that five degrees are administered in these "temples," and that the whole are under the direction of an officer called a general commander in each State.

The password of the first degree is "Nu-oh-lac" (being the word "Calhoun" spelled backward) and that the second, "Webster. "

The word of distress, "Ohone-ohone-ohone. " The street sign of recognition is given by placing the plan of the left hand on the right breast, and raising right to an angle of 45 degrees with the shoulders and on a line with them.

The grip is a full grasp of the hand, with the index finger so extended as to rest upon the wrist of the person addressed. The toe of the person desiring to be recognized is also placed at the hollow of the foot of the other.

Beyond the second degree I have no information. It is stated that a meeting of the "general commanders" was held in the city of New York on the 22nd of February to organize an outbreak on the 10th of March (on the occasion of the draft), but through the want of courage