[Indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF CENTRAL MISSOURI,
Warrensburg, February 21, 1864.

Respectfully returned.

Colonel Ford will make and forward requisitions to these headquarters; and until such time as the same can be filled, the recruits of his command can be used as infantry.

By order of Brigadier-General Brown:

JAMES H. STEGER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF CENTRAL MISSOURI,
Jefferson City, Mo., February 10, 1864.

Honorable J. DAVIES,

Senator, General Assembly, Jefferson City, Mo.:

GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE COMMITTEE OF NINE: In reply to your communication of this date, through J. Davies, requesting my answer to the following interrogatories, to wit:

What were the circumstances attending the trial, conviction, and execution of Dr. Zimmermann and Hamilton, at Tipton? What other parties have been summarily tried and executed under similar circumstances in your department, and what was the military necessity, and effect, if any, had it produced upon the country? What was the nature of the organization of Maddox and others in the vicinity of Knobnoster? Please state all the prominent facts of the case, also those attending their arrest and trial.

I would say, in answer, that Dr. Zimmerman and Hamilton were executed at Tipton for the crime of horse stealing, after having been impartially tried and convicted by a court composed of the officers of the post, Lieutenant-Colonel Crittenden, Seventh Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, commanding. Carlisle, a noted rebel and guerrilla, was tried and executed at Warsaw by a similar court, Lieutenant-Colonel Lazear, First Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, commanding. Snelling, a notorious guerrilla, was tried and shot at Clinton by a similar court, Lieutenant-Colonel Brown, of the Enrolled Missouri Militia, commanding. Benton, a perjured traitor and a noted bushwhacker, after having taken the oath of allegiance, joining the militia, deserted them, was captured by a detachment of the Fourth Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, in a skirmish with Quantrill's men, tried, convicted, and shot by a similar board of officers, Colonel George H. Hall commanding.

A spirit of lawlessness and recklessness, having no regard for the rights of any class of citizens, whether loyal or not, had pervaded the western portion of the Central District of Missouri to such an extent that the civil functions of the law were utterly helpless, and the military law, to a great extent, was crippled.

Men thoroughly organized in bands, and having a perfect connection, had inaugurated a reign of terror and crime which rendered the lives and property of all citizens unsafe, and so completely cowed citizens into submission through fear of repeated outrages that it had become impossible to reach and punish the perpetrators through the legitimate channels of properly constituted military tribunals. These acts of crime were not confined to rebel enemies