A 3 - 2.

U. S. STEAMER MICHIGAN,

Off Johnson's Island, Sandusky, September 18, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel B. H. HILL, U. S. Army,

Military Commander:

Thanks for your dispatch. All ready. Cannot be true in relation to the officers or men.

JNO. C. CARTER,

Commander, U. S. Navy.

A 4 - 3.

DETROIT, September 19, 1864.

Captain J. C. CARTER, U. S. Navy,

U. S. Steamer Michigan, Sandusky, Ohio:

It is said the parties will embark to-day at Malden on board the Philo Parsons, and will seize either that steamer or another running from Kelly's Island. Since my last dispatch am again assured that officers and men have been bought by a man named Cole; a few men to be introduced on board under guise of friends of officers; an officer named Eddy to be drugged. Both Commodore Gardner and myself look upon the matter as serious.

B. H. HILL,

Lieutenant Colonel, U. S. Army, Acting Assistant Provost-Marshal-General.

A 5 - 4.

SANDUSKY, September 19, 1864.

Colonel B. H. HILL:

Your dispatch of 19th received. I have Cole and a fair prospect of bagging the party.

J. C. CARTER,

Commander, U. S. Navy.

B 1.

Affidavit of James Denison, engineer.

STATE OF MICHIGAN,

County of Wayne, ss:

James Denison, being duly sworn, deposeth and saith, that he is twenty-eight years of age, and is engineer of the steam-boat Philo Parsons. Deponent further saith, that he was on board said vessel on her trip from Detroit to Sandusky on the 19th day of September, A. D. 1864; that said steam-boat left the dock at Detroit about 8 o'clock in the morning, with about thirty-five passengers on board. The boat, after stopping at Sandwich and Malden, and taking other passengers, put out into Lake Erie for Sandusky. After we left Kelly's Island, and about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, I was in the fireman's room. I heard a noise on the boat and came out on deck. I then heard a man, armed with a revolver, call to Campbell, the wheelman, who was then ascending from the main deck to the upper deck, to stop and go down in the fire-hold. Campbell did not stop, and the man then fired at him, but did not hit him. There were eight or nine others, armed with revolvers, on the main deck, yelling and driving most of the passengers down into the fire-hold. After most of them were driven below they put down