HEADQUARTERS NORTHERN SUB-DISTRICT,
Bonham, Tex., April 6, 1864.

Captain E. P. TURNER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

CAPTAIN: Yours of the 31st ultimo (Numbers 710, J.) reached me last night, and in reply have to say that so far as good conduct is concerned the troops belonging to or serving in this sub-district under my orders, with a few exceptions, have been as good or better than any I have served with, and any reports made against them to the contrary is unjust. As I have made exceptions above, it is due to all to call attention to the exceptionable cases. The Brush Battalion behaved baldly everywhere, committing petty depredations on the property of the people about all their camps. There were many complaints of Colonel Gould's regiment, confined, however, to the taking of horses to mount themselves; also of Captain Baylor's Lady's Rangers in the same way, and it was said in a few instances that some of Lieutenant-Colonel Burleson's battalion of Colonel parsons' regiment (who were the most efficient men that ever have been in the district) drank too much whisky and committed some other indiscretions, and that Colonel Good's men made some improper impressments of horses, and that a portion of Colonel Bourland's command made some injudicious impressments of forage, but I know of no serious outrages by any Texas troops, and the most that have occurred have been by troops who did not belong to the district, and which while here were not subject to my command. The behavior of Colonel Martin's regiment has been remarkably good considering the service it has had to do.

I have found that many of the complaints made, which have been investigated, have been made by disaffected persons and much exaggerated. The greatest objection to all the troops I have had is a want of energy and determination to arrest every man liable to arrest by the orders they were serving under, which has been caused to a great extent by the fear of retaliation upon their families and property by the friends and sympathizers of those arrested, and for that reason troops should be sent on that sercie who live at a distance from their field of operation, and until I have a good cavalry regiment sent to me from some other portion of the State I will not be able to get this country cleared of the bad men in it, who owe service to the country, and it will be very difficult to do it any way, as such men have protectors (secret) and sympathizers all over this country, so much so that no scouting party can move in the daytime successfully, and nearly all our operations have to be carried on ins the night. Many robberies, thefts, and murders have been committed in the country, principally by men with Federal overcoats on, some of which have been traced to Captain Quantrill's company proper, and others to some of the men who came here with him last fall, and to renegade Missourians and Arkansas who have left our army in Arkansas and Missouri, and have been lurking about the country all the winter, in spite of my best efforts to rid the country of them; and I assure you the Captain Quantrill command has been a terror to the country and a curse to our land and cause in this section, and I never have been able to control them, because I have not had troops that had the moral and physical courage to arrest and disarm them, less than which never would have done any good.

As to those other blue-coat gentry lurking about the country, they have been able generally to evade the scouts by keeping out of their