of Fremont toward Staunton and on the railroad; Banks to incline over east and seize the Piedmont and threaten or take Gordonsville and the Kanawha Valley; to seize Lewisburg and support the forces breaking the Southwestern Virginia and Tennessee Railroad; ulterior movements contingent, but tending to mass the troops as much as requisite to supply each other and subsist. For goodness' sake order the plan of supplies proposed. No man of experience, knowing the people and country, can fail to approve it.

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Brigadier-General, U. S. Army.

HEADQUARTERS MOUNTAIN DEPARTMENT, April 23, 1862.

Brigadier General ROBERT C. SCHENCK, Moorefield:

Use every possible means to get forward your main body to Franklin and keep these headquarters constantly advised.

J. C. FREMONT.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE KANAWHA, Charleston, April 23, 1862.

Lieutenant-Colonel COLEMAN,
Commanding Eleventh Ohio Volunteers, Winfield:

SIR: I regret to be under the necessity of calling your attention to a matter of a kind I had hoped would never occur again with troops of my command in this valley.

On Friday last a party of your regiment went to Mrs. Ann M. Millan's farm, a little above Winfield, and took her yoke of work oxen, which were taken to camp and killed. Mrs. Millan is an ardent Union-it, sister of Judge Summers, of this place. As I have heard the account I regard it no better than robbery.

Indiscriminate seizure of cattle and property in this valley has been long since peremptorily forbidden. No cattle can be taken but by fair purchase, in which the quartermaster must give such voucher as will show the entire legitimacy of the transaction and insure the payment of the agreed price. To take work cattle without the owner's consent is simply a crime, and should be treated as such. Officers of detachments who take the responsibility of such acts must be held strictly responsible for them. Western Virginia is not to be regarded as an enemy's country, where foraging is to be permitted, but the same strictness of conduct is to be observed as if we were in Ohio. There are civil and judicial authorities to take cognizance of civil affairs, and the military are to be kept from any improper interference. These things have been repeated so often that it ought not to be necessary to call attention to them again.

I desire that you will personally call upon Mrs. Millan and learn her story; that you will strictly investigate the case and report the full facts to these headquarters, and if the officer in charge of the detachment has acted improperly and without authority that you will put him under arrest till further orders. If it has not already been done, Mrs. Millan should be fully indemnified for her loss, and if that loss is more than the ration price of the beef, let the balance be charged to the companies using it, to be deducted from their company savings.